[MRCA] Don't cry! (Military Waste)

[Mike Morrow]

> Another coworker told me about pushing brand new UH-1 helos
> overboard toward the end of Vietnam.

Your co-worker likely just has an overactive imagination!  It's
pretty safe to say that the dumping of new aircraft because the US
had too many after pulling out of S.E.A. just did *not* happen.

Almost all such in-country equipment was turned over to the Republic
of Vietnam as we progressively began pulling out after 1970.  About
the only UH-1 and other related helicopters that came back to the US
were those in need of re-build at the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD), 
transported from and to S.E.A. on the USNS Corpus Christie Bay.  CCAD,
just next to NAS Corpus Christie, was a truly amazing facility during
the Vietnam war, especially if one viewed the yard containing aircraft
awaiting rework, compared to what came out after the work was done.

Without doubt, stories about dumping UH-1 aircraft stem from the
instances which took place in late April 1975, as refugees used them
to land on or near US Navy ships off the VN coast during the collapse
of the RoV government.  That is well documented in video from television
reports at the time.  However, ARVN aircraft were known to generally be
in sorry condition at that time, so whatever was pushed overboard or
ditched along side US ships, they were anything but "new", and they
were being dumped to make room on deck for continued refugee aircraft
landing, not because the US had more than they could use.

I remember thinking of the waste I was seeing on the TV.  To give
a small flavor of the radio gear by itself that was typically aboard
all UH-1D/H models, here's a sample:

AN/ARC-51BX     UHF-AM     (Collins)
AN/ARC-102      HF SSB     (Collins 618T-3) (command aircraft only)
AN/ARC-131      VHF-FM     (Magnavox FM-622)
AN/ARC-134      VHF-AM     (Wilcox 807A)
AN/ARN-82       VOR        (Collins 51R)
AN/ARN-83       LF/MF ADF  (Collins 51Y-4)
AN/APX-72       IFF

The above radio avionics represent a value approaching $70000 in 1968
dollars.  Then, there's the rest of the aircraft!

When the RoV government collapsed, it was estimated that five billion
dollars of US military gear was lost ($25 billion in 2012 dollars).
Back then, that seemed like a lot of money.

As far as all that abandoned Soviet/Russian equipment goes, that was
a very interesting set of photos.  I noticed in several locations the
R-123 VHF-FM set that filled the same role for the East Block forces
that our AN/VRC-12 series did for ours.  It is possibly the most
frequently encountered East Block set of all time.  I own one, and it
is certainly not equivalent to our AN/VRC-12 series.  The AN/VRC-12
was not cheap...prices varied over the years depending on contracts,
but it wouldn't be unlikely that a R-524 and R-442 set (AN/VRC-47) in the
back of a military vehicle had cost the taxpayers $20000.  However,
the AN/VRC-12 series appeared in early 1961, and wasn't finally phased
out of US service until late 2008.  Does anyone know of any other military
set that served for 47 years with a major military organization?  I
don't know of anything that comes close.  I guess it was worth the money.

Mike / KK5F