24. Belated Kudo For The 134^th AHC

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By Bob Giebner

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I hope this doesn't come out wrong, but I'd like to spread the word about the 134th's record and a very belated kudo. I left Vietnam in 1970. Thirteen years later, while I was an AH-1S pilot filling in as a UH-1 Instructor Pilot at Ft. Hood, the Army Safety Institute guys contacted me and asked me what we did that was better than anyone else in the Army.

It seems there was a serious accident trend in the Army at that time (and all DOD for that matter), and they decided to cross-reference pilots who always seemed to be in units with low accident rates during their career. The 134^th alumni stood out from the rest. These safety folks wanted to know how the 134th did it.

As I recall, there was also a rumor that we had the lowest engine failure rate in Viet Nam. Anyway, they decided the main factors were our PIC (Pilot in Command) training and selection process, and the outstanding maintenance process where everyone was involved.