Welcome to IYACYAS.com

My own first combat experience was in Viet Nam and that was where the Air Cavaly concept originally began. Rather than detail the complete history in text that would require hours of reading, I have chosen a few video clips from the web to illustrate the background.

The first three clips are specifically about the development of operations, which were entirely new at the time. They were referred to as, "Air Mobility Team," shortened to "Air Mobile," which later became the basis for units known as, "Air Cavalry," or the shorter version, "Air Cav."

Air Cavalry 1965 Part 1

When you watch the clip above, you might get the impression that pilots were influenced by the old fashion flying of WWI, and from my own experience I would confirm that.
Viet Nam offered pilots remarkable freedom in the way they flew because the enemy did not have aircraft to pose a threat, with the exception being in North Viet Nam and their MiG fighters.
Helicopter pilots were concerned about the threat of hostile fire more from the ground, than from the air. In most cases, the main threats to helicopters were from small arms.
It was not until later in the war that shoulder launched, heat seeking missiles were available to the enemy, and of course, I had to become one of their first targets.
My tour was pretty much toward the end of the conflict and right up near the DMZ, so I had to deal with the more modern threats like SA-7s, tanks, radar and ZSU's. You can look that up conveniently under the April Offensive of 1972.
That would also explain the title the book I am writing, Where were you in '72 ?"

Air Cavalry 1965 Part 2

Please do not laugh at the uniforms. There is a special section devoted to Units and Uniforms on this site.
Let me just say that when I got "in - country," there were many stories about pilots who flew around in jeans, t-shirts and cowboy boots.
Whether they were called out on a Quick Reaction Mission from being off duty, I do not know. All I know is the uniforms are pretty funny in those old clips.

Air Cavalry 1965 Part 3

Air Cav is a subset of Cavalry, which is generally regarded as the second oldest concept in military organization after the Infantry (and, of course Cav would never compare infantry grunts with the oldest profession.)
The simple distinction being that - Infantry is on foot while Cavalry is mounted.
Back at the very beginning, and probably for a thousand years or so, Cavalry rode horses.
With the industrial revolution came the development of combat vehicles to be used by Cavalry.

There are many more video clips that could illustrate the Cavalry Concept, but here are just a few:

This site is dedicated to all those who serve in the military, and by serving have become
familiar with the special jargon that is so often used by combat veterans the world over.

This site has been an attempt to educate those of you not schooled in military parlance,
so if you still do not understand what IYACYAS means, then here is a very simple clue:

If You Ain't Cav, You Ain't Seen nuthin