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Though classified as an "Aeroscout" organization with limited equipment and personnel, our mission tactics were
more closely aligned with Air Cavalry units. One aspect of our mission clearly set us apart from any other organization in
Army history, that tactic was the "snatch". The "snatch" consisted of "Skeeter", the scout aircraft,
locating equipment and personnel for intel assessment. The "Slick", a UH-1D or H model, would land under cover of
the "Guns", and a small contingent of "Animals", an infantry squad, would locate and return with either
personnel or the equipment. The "Snatch" was returned to Chu Lai for the intel assessment.
Unit Commanders: - Major Frederic W.
Watke, 1968
- Major Clyde Wilson, 04-06 1968
- Major Junius "Jay" Tanner, 1968-1969
- Major James
C. Maher, 1969-1970 (deceased)
- Major John (?) Perdue, 01-05 1970
(?)
- Major Bert C. Amidon, 05 - Sep 1970 (?)
- Major Donald M. Long, Oct 1970-Apr 1971
- Joe E. Drew, Apr
1971 - July 1971
- Tom Marshall, Col.
USA Ret., Jul '71 - till the end, Nov 1971
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| Major Junius "Jay" Tanner, Warlord 6, 1968-1969 |
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| Warlord 6, Oct '70 - Apr '71 |
Subject:
Last Warlord 6 Tom: I was researching Typhoon Hester for an article and I came across the Warlord
web site. I do not follow Vietnam history (probably should but you know how some people feel about those days) so I was surprised
and pleased by your commendable work and should add to the record, at least as the list of commanders are concerned. I took
over command in July ’71 from Maj. Drew and was the last Warlord 6 standing the unit down and seeing the last men leave
in November, after Typhoon Hester delivered the knockout blow on 23 Oct. During those last four months the unit had one KIA
from an OH-6 shoot down and was essentially wiped out by Hester losing about 13 helos when the hanger collapsed. I won’t
go into detail now but I am particularly proud of how I took the Warlords into action one last time, going out in glory. I
organized a night raid (had a devil of a time getting Div. Hqs OK and a very unusual Army aviation operation) taking the entire
unit about 50k west to a known VC collecting point at the conjunction of two rivers, a free fire zone, and we rolled in with
everything we had…a/c lights out or taped, a surprise raid, returning to Chu Lai as the sun rose over the China Sea,
circled the airfield in column and with a flyover landed one at a time, for the last time. I landed last, the final logged
combat time for the Warlords. We stood down later that day. I have the company guide on hanging in my office…took it with me as I flew
from Chu Lai to Long Binh as I still had 7 months remaining on my second tour.
Tom Marshall
Col. USA Ret.
 Let me start off by saying thank you for your service. I
noticed your webpage one day while on-line,
and became very interested. My name
is Captain Nick Holten, and I am the commander of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion (Attack), 3rd
Aviation Regiment, 3rd Infantry
Division at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia. I know that 6th Battalion, 101st Aviation Brigade traces their lineage to the 123rd Aviation Battalion and your service in Vietnam, and their Bravo Company still calls themselves the “Warlords,” but I wanted
to write and briefly introduce
myself and our company – also the
Warlords. The 3rd ID deactivated after Vietnam, and their aviation assets left with
them. In 1987, my battalion here at Hunter reactivated as the 24th Aviation Regiment, 24th
Infantry Division – their
1st Battalion
was an AH-1 Cobra battalion and chose to name all three of their companies after Gun/Scout aviation units that served with
distinction in Vietnam. Our Alpha Company – the “Assassins” – was named after D Troop, 5th Air Cav, Charlie Company
– the “Outcasts”
– were named after C Troop, 16th Cav, and Bravo Company
– the “Warlords”
– were named after B Company, 123rd AVN BN. In 1996, the 24th ID re-flagged as the 3rd Infantry Division, and 1-24 ATK became 1-3 ATK, who we are currently.
So even though our guidon doesn’t technically have its roots with the 123rd, we still consider ourselves related. Now the
Warlords are an Attack Helicopter Company consisting of eight AH-64D Apache Longbow Attack Helicopters and 36 Soldiers. We have two platoons of 8 aviators and 8 crewchiefs each – smaller than how you were organized in Vietnam. We have been
deployed to Iraq three times since 2003:
during the initial invasion where we were the first Apache unit to Baghdad,
back to Baghdad during 2005 for OIF III, and most recently during
2007/2008 for OIF V and OIF VI to Baghdad, Basrah, Tallil, and Al Kut. We returned last July. I have been with the battalion
for two of their three deployments, and we are preparing to leave again
for either Afghanistan or Northern Iraq later this year. Like I said, I know B/6-101 still call themselves the Warlords, but I thought a bunch of former Gun Bunnies
might also like to know there are some current Gun Bunny Warlords out there. Respectfully, Nick Holten CPT,
AV “Warlord 6”
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Unit Awards:
RVNGC 2 Nov 68 - 28 Feb 69
DAGO 2, 1971
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| Major Maher, Warlord 6, 1969-1970 |
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| Major Maher, Warlord 6 & Cpt Barfield, Warlord 5, 1969 |
 My name is Jamie Halchishick (1SG
Hal). I am the current Warlord 07. As written on your webpage, the 123rd later reflagged in Dec 89 to 6-101st Avn Regt. At
that time the Warlords were B/6-101st Avn. In 2004, after the Iraq invasion, the Army underwent another transformation, we
lost two of our sister companies to other brigades under the new, modular Unit of Action (same as brigade) idea where brigades
are deployable as a stand alone unit. At that time, we were redesignated A/6-101st Avn Regt. We still have a little bit of
old Warlord stuff hanging around, but in 2005 we modified the Warlord insignia (technology and all). We advertise the new
one, but the old one still sits in the commander's office.
We now fly the UH60L Blackhawk. It's pretty
awesome. We don't get to tote around some of the big weaponry that your gunships had (you gotta be in the 160th SOAR for
that nowadays), but we still tote a couple M240's in the windows (newer version of the M60).
We have done 2
year long tours in Iraq and 1 in Afghanistan. I just found your website last night, told the company about it today, and we
should be getting some more current Warlords on the blog and sending pictures soon. I will be working on setting up a museum
type display for the Warlords at our battalion HQ for the next couple months and I can't wait to use some of the pics
and things on the website to show the lineage and history that you former Warlords fought and died creating. I am proud of
every one of you, and know that hands down, the Warlords have been recognized time and time again as the Best flight company
in the 101st Airborne Division.
Looking forward to sharing with some of you heroes of Vietnam so that we can learn
more about our past and you can learn more about current Warlord ops.
Who knows, maybe we will have a formation
together sometime...
Jamie
"WARLORD 07"
1SG James S. Halchishick
Aco 6-101st GSAB
101st Airborne Division ( Air Assault )
NIPR: james.halchishick@us.army.mil |
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