This UH-1H, served as a command aircraft for the 173rd Brigade in early-mid 1969. The Brigade logo is displayed on the front cargo door. The logo possibly also appeared on the nose. Photos of some other 173rd ships from this period have the brigade nose insignia. A red and white Brigadier General's placard is displayed on the frame post behind the pilot's door. The front edges of the skids are painted yellow.  A step was attached to each side of most command and VIP Hueys. It was located just below the bottom edge of the cargo deck, and just behind the front cargo door. The tail can't be seen on photos of this aircraft, so tail details are speculative. A photograph of this aircraft was seen in the April 25, 1969 issue of Life magazine.

173rd Airborne Brigade Command Huey - 1969

An Americal VIP ship as photographed in 1970. The AMERICAL division insignia is on the nose. The front skid tips are painted red. The rear cargo doors have been removed from the aircraft. The usual front cargo doors with windows have been replaced by window-less doors. The tail has a white circle insignia - meaning is unknown at this time. The ship number, "022" is painted in white above the circle. The ship was called "Pelican 22" after the original Pelican lift platoon (161st AHC) that was deactivated in 1968 and absorbed into the 123rd Aviation Battalion (Americal).  This VIP ship had the step added below the cargo bay deck.

In addition to the 116th Hornet nose art, a distinctive rectangle emblem appeared on the tail. The rectangle was divided into red-blue-red vertical stripes, with the AMERICAL Division insignia placed on the blue bar. The rectangle was outlined in white. The five-digit tail number was painted in two colors - the first two numbers (15) in black, and the last three digits (719) in yellow.  A step was added below the cargo bay deck - a common practice for C&C and VIP ships. 

The 198th Brigade command ship from late 1969 was a UH-1H, a/c number 69-15569. The ship was part of the 176th AHC "Minutemen", and displayed the "176" unit designation on the pilots' doors and "Minuteman" emblem on the tail. The rear tail boom end was painted white. It's difficult to distinguish the details of tail number from available photos. "569" was painted in either white or yellow - they appear white in the photos. The tail number may also have included "15" in black, but this detail is not clear from the photos. 176th AHC ships carried a red roof stripe, and  white-red-white vertical stripes on the tail boom just before the horizontal tailplane. This ship also displayed the 198th Brigade emblem on the nose. As seen in other command and VIP ships, there was a step added just below the cargo bay deck.

Huey UH-1H 67-17348 was assigned to the 48th AHC in March 1968. It was given company and platoon markings (black "48" on pilots' doors, white skid tips, stinger cover, and tail number with first two digits white, and last three digits yellow). The ship had the red-white-blue vertical stripes of the 10th CAB on the tail boom. 48th AHC ships of this period also had a blue star logo trimmed in gold underneath the a/c number on the tail. At some point "348" was assigned as a C&C ship for the 9th ROK Division. In the photo I based this illustration on, "348" displayed the major general's placard designating the commanding general's ship. Most 48th ships wore a blue star trimmed in gold as nose art. The nose wasn't seen in the photo I studied of "348". However, several 48th ships had the insignia of the 9th ROK Division on the nose - at the request of that division. I assume that 48th ships wearing 9th ROK Division nose art were probably assigned as C&C ships for the Koreans. Although speculation at this time, it is probable that "348" had this nose art. "348" was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident in April 1969.

1st Platoon was named "the Lizards". Aircraft in the platoon were named "Lizard 1", "Lizard 2", etc... In 1968-70 the platoon flew UH-1Hs. Noses were painted completely OD. The platoon displayed a distinctive nose art - a cartoon lizard wearing white aviator's goggles. The aircraft had red stinger covers (tail ends) and red skid tips. A black spade was painted on the front cargo door on the right side of the ship. The ship number ("Lizard 7" is illustrated here) was painted in white in the center of the spade logo. The upper surface and outer edge of the horizontal tail plane/sync elevator began to be painted orange around 1969. A step was added below the cargo deck on 1st platoon ships. FM antennas were mounted on the skids at the front cross brace.