How U.S. Navy Helicopters Obtained Their Native American Names

Helicopters had been nimble and will drop in on an unsuspecting enemy, just like the guerilla-style ways deployed by Nice Plains tribes throughout the American-Indian Wars fought all through the 1800s. So Howze determined the subsequent helicopter would bear the identify of the Sioux to honor of these Native People who defeated the seventh Calvary Regiment led by Normal George Custer on the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. 

That led to the naming og the H-13 Sioux, made well-known by the TV present, “M.A.S.H.”

In 1969, Military Regulation 70-28 was created to provide names to army tools. Every identify needed to met 5 necessities: it needed to be inventive however respectful, mission confidence, precisely describe the merchandise’s attributes, espouse its tactical worth, and epitomize the topic for which it was named if for an individual or group. Moreover, the regulation particularly required plane to be named utilizing “Indian phrases and names of American Indian tribes and chiefs.”

The Bureau of Indian Affairs supplied the names. Though that regulation has since lapsed, the army nonetheless has a variety of plane that adhere to this naming conference. Moreover, since 1875 as many as 32 Native People have earned the Medal of Honor throughout the Indian Wars, World Battle II, and the Korean Battle.