Some great photographs of UH-1N`s of the 20th Special Operations Squadron in the area around Hurlburt Field, Florida during some training exercises of the unit. The photos were made during the early 1980s and I personally love the camouflage pattern which they used on their "Hueys" at that time. Hurlburt Field became from the mid 1970s on the homebase of the 20th SOS, a unit with a absolutely interesting and rich history.
Its "real" story as helicopter squadron for special and clandestine operations started mid of the 1960s (At that time still under the designation 20th Helicopter Squadron) as the United States became more and more involved in a new bloody conflict in Asia. A first batch of helicopters of the 20th HS arrived at Tan Son Nhut Airbase, Saigon in 1965. During the following months, the squadron became fully operational and involved into the escalating war in South East Asia. From 1966 on they changed their mission type and entered the clandestine stage of warfare in South East Asia. Known as the "Pony Express", the 20th HS supported not only US Forces in South Vietnam, but also the covert war of the CIA in Laos, which armed tens of thousands members of indigenious tribes to fight against North Vietnamese regulars, the Pathet Lao Communists and the VC within Laos.
During the following years the unit not only changed its designation to 20th Special Operations Squadron, but also received some batches of gunships with UH-1Fs and "P" helicopters. The former a much more powerful version of the "Huey", equipped with a new engine and the latter a heavily armed version of the UH-1. It was also in South East Asia where they received their nickname "Green Hornets".
Deactivated in 1972, it needed just few months until the unit was again re-activated at Hurlburt Field, Florida in early 1973. This time with a main focus on Special Operations and equipped with types like the UH-1N and later the HH-53H and MH-53H "Pave Low" helicopters.
The 1980s saw several deployments, no matter if during Operation "Urgent Fury", the small scale US Invasion on the Island of Grenada in the Carribean in 1983, missions as part of the Reagans administrations "War on Drugs", or Operation "Just Cause" which removed the notorious leader of Panama, Manuel Noriega from power in 1989.
Operations in Kuwait, Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan followed during the 1990s and early 2000s. Helicopters of that unit also supported Emergency units at the Pentagon, just days after the Terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
A truly interesting unit which history could fill a book (which it does, as I can highly recommend the book "Green Hornets: The History of the U.S. Air Force 20th Special Operations Squadron" by Wayne Mutza) and which story continues until today, with clandestine operations all around the globe.