Below are two photos of 174th UH-1C "pre-teeth" Shark gunships. The first one is a Shark with the 40-mm grenade-launcher (Thumper) on the nose and a 7-shot 2.75-inch rocket pod on each side. This was before the unit adapted the WWII-style "Flying Tigers" sharks teeth on the nose of all the Sharks. You can see the UH-1D Dolphin slicks in the background and several CONEX's (containers) used to transport and store unit equipment to the right in the background. Ted Saunders says this photo was taken as the aircraft was hovering out for a maintenance test hop. Also note that the mountains came down very close to the helipad at Lane. (Photo by Ted Saunders, Lane AHP, 1966)

This second photo is the only picture your friendly webmaster has ever seen with the 174 unit number painted on the pilots doors of a Shark. Later only the Dolphins (slicks) had the unit numbers on the doors, and they were always black. This is the only picture I've ever seen with yellow 174 door paint. I guess the unit was experimenting with paint schemes for the guns. Although it's difficult to tell in this scanned image, the Sharks already had the white "fin" painted on the top of the vertical stabilizer (near the tail rotor), and the white square was painted on the roof between the pilots green-houses. (Photo by Mike Bovre, Lane AHP, 1966)

Return to top of: 1966 History Page.
Return to top of: Home Page.


---