History Of The UH-34D Stinger Gunship
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"The History of the UH-34D Stinger" was revised on  20 December 2007
by Alan Weiss with permission from George McKee & Willard Reeves Jr.
 Article from Helis.com

Story provided by George McKee & Willard Reeves Jr.

The Sea Horse primary role was personnel and cargo transport. The aircraft were "slick" meaning that they had no weapons but by August 1962 some squadrons had, M-60 machine guns were mounted inside the aircraft. Two machine guns were utilized: one for the crew chief, mounted at the main door and one mounted in the rear window on the opposite side for use of the gunner. Very often the pilot and co-pilot carried an AR15, which was the forerunner of today 's M16 rifle, next to their seat in the cockpit which allowed them to provide fire support if they were not on the controls.

Gunner George DeBarge HMM-361 Shufly 1963 with AR15

The US Army, with a small unit deployed in Da Nang, had Bell UH-1B (at that time HU-1B ) aircraft configured as gunships and would serve as escorts when there own commitments allowed. UH-1B aircraft for Marine use was still in the future; the UH-1E specialized Marines version of the Huey arrived in 1966.
The army UH-1B was a little underpowered for the role they were playing and must be remembered, was also an experiment for the US Army . The extra weight of several boxes of ammunition and the extra crewmembers to maintain a constant flow of ammunition and manning extra M-60 machine guns caused the UH-1B to be slow and with limited range. This was because of the need to cut back on the amount of fuel carried to allow for the extra weight. A strike of any distance would require a refueling stop for the UH-1B along the route while the UH-34 circled.

photo from Helis.com

All these reasons, along with the limited amount of aircraft the army had, resulted in the Marine Corps Development Center at Quantico experimenting with some method of providing the Marine Corps a means of escorting themselves.
The method decided on was to arm the UH-34.

UH-34s' were modified by mounting two fixed, forward firing M-60 machine guns attached to the landing gear on the right side and two 2.75" FFAR ( Folding Fin Aerial Rocket ) pods attached between the landing gear struts on each side of the aircraft. Both rear windows now had an M-60 machine gun installed and one in the door for the crew chief. The rockets' sighting system was very primitive but useable. It consisted of a grease pencil mark on the windshield and a cross hair welded inside a circle mounted to the instrument panel and windshield with nuts and bolts. The system required the cross hair in the circle be lined up with the grease pencil and the target. What it lacked in sophistication, it made up in reliability.
Pilots that flew them began to hit targets consistently, after a little practice.

The armed H-34s, called Stingers had only four aircraft modified. They were all assigned to HMM-365 commanded by Lt.Col. Joseph Koler and was the first Marine helicopter unit to utilize a piston powered helicopter as a gunship.

Due to the urgency of the war and the lack of gunships another Marine Corps UH-34 squadron HMM-162 had some TK-1 Stingers kits installed on some aircraft. Our aircraft Buno 150570 (YS-19) was a Stinger gunship while in HMM-162.

Many problems plagued the conversion and perhaps the mounting design was the major of them. With the rigid mounts, neither the machine guns nor the rockets could be aimed without the entire helicopter being pointed in the direction of the target. This made for some pretty unusual flying altitudes trying to line up the cross-hair with the dot by pointing the aircraft....and by the way...while, usually, presenting a pretty big bulls-eye for the target.

The UH-34 was a relatively large, slow aircraft and the target usually got some pretty good shots at the gunship. All these factors contributed to an unusually number of Stingers damaged by ground fire. The US Army solved this problem in later versions of the UH-1B by mounting their armament on swivels that could be aimed in a direction other than the one the aircraft was pointed.

In spite of all the limitations, the US Marines used the Stingers effectively and extensively but the days of piston powered aircraft were numbered and the decision was made to discontinue the experiment. Turbine powered aircraft was the future of helicopter warfare.
As soon as the US Army got some more armed UH-1Bs to Da Nang to support the marines increased flight operations, the Stingers were striped of their forward firing armament returning to a transport configuration and became but a footnote in history.

Special thanks to George McKee & Willard Reeves Jr.

AIRCRAFT HISTORY

YN-19 aircraft BU NO 150570 was built by Sikorsky Aircraft Division in Stratford, Connecticut and delivered to the Marine Corps Oct. 28 1963. It served in Vietnam from 1963 to June 1969. During her time in Vietnam she served with many squadrons as they rotated in and out of Vietnam. We have collected the following history from the aircraft log records, from US government records on the internet and from pilot log books. If you flew our aircraft please mail me photo copies of your log book and we will add your information to our website.

Squadrons 150570 was assigned to:

HMM-163 Nov. 1963
H&MS-16 Mag 16 April 1964
HMM-361 April 9, 1964 YN-19
HMM-364 July 23, 1964
HMM-162 Oct. 17, 1964
HMM-365 March 5, 1965
HMM-162 March 9, 1965 YS-19
HMM-365 May 15, 1965
HMM-361 Aug. 2, 1965 YN-19
FAWPRA Jan. 1, 1966
HMM-161 March 22, 1966
HMM-361 April 9, 1966 YN-19
HMM-263 May 25,1966 EG-8 or 9
HMM-163 Aug. 1, 1966 YP-7
FAWPRA June 11, 1968
HMM-363 Sept. 24, 1968 YZ-18
HMM-362 Jan. 1969 YL-23
NAS Norris June 26, 1969
MARTD Atlanta Aug. 29, 1969 aircraft #407
Aircraft storage center Davis Monthan Jan. 3, 1972 aircraft was retired from service.

On July 2, 2001our organization  purchased a stripped shell from J.H. Helicopter Services in Cochise AZ and shipped her to NY to begin her restoration.
On Nov. 12, 2005 after 5 1/2 years and over 20,000 man hours YN-19 once again flew her first mission 33 years later. 

J.H. Helicopter Services Cochise AZ YN-19 left July 26, 2001

YN-19 was rolled out and checked for her 1st flight Nov. 12, 2005

150570 AIRCRAFT  HISTORY PHOTOS

These are actual photos of our aircraft in Vietnam along with
after action reports filled out by our pilots

"PILOT LOG RECORDS THAT FLEW OUR AIRCRAFT"

Frank J. Gajewski Vietnam HMM-163
Jan. 17, 1964 1R4 2.1 total time of mission 1 landing

Ken Morgan Okinawa Japan USS Valley Forge HMM-361
May 16, 1964 .5 total time of mission 1 Carrier landing

Thomas Kanaley Okinawa Japan USS Valley Forge HMM-361
June 5, 1964 1R4 .8 total time of mission 2 landings 1 Carrier landing

Barry O. Simmons South China Sea USS Valley Forge HMM-364
Aug. 10, 1964 1A2 1.5 total time of mission 2 Carrier landings
Aug. 25, 1964 1P    0.7 total time of mission 1 Carrier landing
Oct. 10, 1964 1A2 1.5 total time of mission 2 Carrier landings

Bud Jones Vietnam HMM-162
Oct. 23, 1964  .2 total time 1 Sea landing
Nov. 21, 1964  2.4 total time of mission 5 landings 2 Carrier
April 20, 1965  2.5 total time of mission 10 landings

Geis Royall Vietnam HMM-162 on USS Princeton
Oct. --, 1964 1.3 total time of mission
March --, 1965 1.4 total time of mission

Charles Cannon Okinawa Japan & Vietnam HMM-364
Aug. 12, 1964 1R4 3.9 total time 4 landings 2 Sea
Aug. 13, 1964 1P 1.4 total time  Search & Rescue
Sept. 11, 1964 1A2 2.2 total time 1 Sea landing
Sept. 26, 1964 1R4 2.4 total time 2 landing 2 Sea

Leon Moore Vietnam HMM-162
Oct. 19, 1964 3A1 1.3 total time of mission 1 Sea landing
Dec. 4, 1964 1R4 2.2 total time of mission 2 landings
Jan. 6, 1965 1R4 .1 Test hop
Jan. 14, 1965 3A1 1.5 total time of mission 8 Sea landings
Jan. 26, 1965 3A1 .3 total time of mission 1 Sea landing
Feb. 25, 1965 1R4 2.6 total time of mission 4 Sea landings
April. 4, 1965 1R9 1.3 total time of mission 9 landings
May. 7, 1965 1R9 .8 total time of mission 2  landings

George M. Shiffer Jr. Vietnam HMM-361
July 13, 1965  1.9 total time
Oct. 2, 1965    1.5 total time
Apr 26, 1966  3.1 total time
May 14, 1966  0.8 total time
May. 17, 1966 2.8 total time

Allen E. Cates Vietnam HMM-361
May 23, 1965 1R5 .7 total time of mission 2 landings
June 11, 1965 1V3 1.0 total time of mission 1 landing
July 9, 1965 1R5 2.2 total time of mission 7 landings
 July 9, 1965 1R5 2.2 total time of mission 8 landings
July 9, 1965 1R5 .8 total time of mission 1 landing
July 31, 1965 1R9 .8 total time of mission 7 landings
Aug. 1, 1965 1R7 2.1 total time of mission 5 landings
Aug. 1, 1965 3R7 3.7 total time of mission 10 landings

Paul Bronson Vietnam HMM-361
Aug. 2, 1965 1R5 2.4 total time of mission 10 landings
Aug. 5, 1965 1R7 1.5 total time of mission 1 landing
Sept. 26, 1965 1J2 0.2 total time of mission 1 landing

Norm Urban Vietnam HMM-361
Aug. 8, 1965 0.6 total time of mission 1 landing

Don Ringgold Vietnam HMM-361
Sept. 19, 1965 1R7 0.3 total time of mission 1 landing
Oct. 18, 1965 1R9 1.1 total time of mission 1 landing
Oct. 24, 1965 1R5 1.3 total time of mission 2 landings
Oct. 24, 1965 1R9 0.7 total time of mission 2 landings
Nov. 10, 1965 3R7 0.5 total time of mission 2 landings
Nov. 10, 1965 1R7 1.1 total time of mission 1 landings
Dec. 01, 1965 1J2 0.2 total time of mission 1 landings

James P. Mulroy Vietnam HMM-361
Sept. 20, 1965 1R5 .5 total time 1 landing
Oct. 30, 1965 1R9 1.3 total time of mission 7 landing
Nov. 7, 1965 1R6 1.8 total time of mission 3 landings
May 5, 1966  1R4 1.8 total time of mission 7 landings

William A. Allanson Vietnam HMM-361
April 13,1966 1A1 1.4 total time 1 Landing
April 26,1966 1P 2.0 total time 4 Landings

Gordon Squires Okinawa
June 3, 1966 1A1 .6 total time 0 landings External load

Bernie Gordon Vietnam HMM-163
Aug. 26, 1967 1R5 1.7 total time of mission
Dec. 24, 1967 3R6 2.5 total time of mission Night Medevac
Jan. 5, 1968 3R6 total time of mission Night Medevac

M. C. Abajian Vietnam HMM-363 YZ-18
Sept.. 27, 1968 3L2 0.5 total time of Test mission 3 landings
Sept.. 27, 1968 3L2 0.5 total time of Test mission 1 landing
Sept.. 28, 1968 3V3 1.6 total time of mission 1 landing

Brook Stevenson Vietnam HMM-363 YZ-18
Oct. 10, 1968 1R9 2.8 total time of mission 4 landings

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