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Flying Tigers in Vietnam

"The 174th AHC SHARKS, flying UH-1B, UH-1C and UH-1M Huey gunships from 1966-1971, arrived in Vietnam with the fronts of their Hueys painted the factory subdued olive green and black. Early in 1966 the unit officially asked for and received permission from the famous Flying Tigers of WWII to adapt their P-40 Warhawk's sharks-mouth paint scheme to the Shark's helicopters. Permission was received in June 1966, and every Shark from then on until the end of the war proudly bared those famous teeth into combat. While numerous USAF jets and some AH-1G Cobra helicopters used the shark's mouth in Vietnam, the 174th Sharks were the only UH-1 Huey gunships in the entire war to sport the shark's teeth, and the only unit to get permission from the Flying Tigers to do so.

"This first picture above is of Shark #140. It later received an in-country modification and was armed with a 40mm grenade launcher in a turret on the nose. The flexible sight for the turret was operated by the pilot in the left seat, and it fired approximately 250 grenades per minute (over four per second). This aircraft also is armed with 38 2.75-inch Folding Fin Aerial Rockets (FFAR) that were fixed to the mid-point (center of gravity) on each side of the helicopter in two 19-shot rocket pods, and were fired by the pilot in the right seat. For firing the rockets, the pilot had to "point" the aircraft at the target, much as WWII fighter pilots had to do with fixed machine guns in the wings or in the noses of their fixed-wing fighters."

The website contains a letter from General Robert Scott (USAF retired) giving his permission on behalf of the AVG and the 14th AF Flying Tigers for the Huey unit to use the sharkface emblem. In part, it reads: "Therefore, authority is hereby granted and I assure you I will write members of the First American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) and tell them what I have done in their name. I assure you that such men as Tex Hill, Ed Restor, Bob Layher, Bob Neal, Chuck Sawyer, Gil Bright and Jim Howard--of the original group-- as well as General Bruce Holloway, Dallas Clinger and all the others of my later 23rd Fighter Group--will back me. In the mean time---please pass on to your fine men that all of us who ever flew into combat behind that shark-mouth---wish you--the 1966 version of the Tigers---every success..."

Scott's letter is dated June 28, 1966.