The UH-1 Iroquois helicopter was officially retired in a ceremony held in Fort Myer on Oct. 2 by the Army National Guard, ending a service life of more than 50 years to the Army and close to 40 years in the Army Guard.

The helicopter, Huey, was first manufactured in 1956 and fielded to the Army by 1959. More than 15,000 of the aircraft were produced with about half that number having been flown during the Vietnam conflict.

“The UH-1, more than any other helicopter or any item of equipment, became the symbol of Vietnam,”said Major General Raymond Carpenter, acting director of the Army National Guard.

The Army Guard first began receiving the aircraft in the early 1970s and at one time the number of the Hueys in the ARNG hovered around 1,500.

The Huey was replaced by the UH-60 Black Hawk beginning in the late 1970s.

Though lacking the lift capabilities and speed of the Black Hawk, as well as the advanced electronic cockpit, many aviators were steadfast in their devotion to the Huey.

The first MQ-9 Reaper to arrive here made its maiden local flight Oct.1, expanding the capacity for the remotely piloted vehicle formal training unit here.

Instructors from the 432nd Operations Group, Det. 3, conducted the first flight, while members from the 432nd Maintenance Group, Det. 1, maintained the aircraft.

However, Lt. Col. James Merchant, Det. 3 commander, said this achievement was the result of a great effort by the entire base.

“There were plenty of hurdles along the way, but everyone maintained focus, looked at the individual steps, from power and connections to pattern deconfliction and scheduling,” Colonel Merchant said. “Everyone kept moving in a positive direction.”

Members of the Reaper FTU have been preparing for this first flight for nearly a year, but only recently reached a fully operational capacity with the arrival of the first aircraft and qualified crew.

“The first flight is … the first step to becoming independent of another base and wing to do our takeoff and landing,” Colonel Merchant said. “Ultimately, it results in more flexibility for us as well, as we will be the only user of the MQ-9 Reaper.”

Currently, students enrolled in the FTU are trained with aircraft launched from Creech Air Force Base, Nev., using satellite relays to pick up the Reaper for a total of 18 hours per day. Once Holloman AFB has qualified crews and enough aircraft, the squadron will be able to launch and recover the Reaper themselves.

“From now until we get our second aircraft in December, we will be flying a local line intermittently to build a cadre of qualified launch and recovery crews,” Colonel Merchant said.

The squadron is slated to receive its third and fourth aircraft in January 2010.

On Oct. 23, the 432nd OG, Det. 3, will become the 29th Attack Squadron, and the 432nd MXG, Det. 1, will become the 849th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, both of which will fall under the 49th Fighter Wing.

The sizzle turned to fizzle for NASA on 9 Oct as it slammed two probes traveling more than 5,000 miles per hour into the moon’s surface in a search for lunar water. While jubilant NASA scientists called the precision strike a success, they are initially puzzled about what happened to an expected 6-mile-high plume of dirt and dust expected to be created by the impact.

The lack of a plume disappointed a worldwide audience watching on NASA TV and the Internet. NASA’s live feed tracked the rapidly descending LCROSS to just before impact and nothing more. The live feed turned to static. Reports from virtually every available Earth-based and space-based telescope failed to show either an impact flash or a plume.

Colaprete stressed all the data and all the images were strictly preliminary. He said the plume could be affected by the angle of the impact, the type of material hit, the composition of the lunar surface and how deep LCROSS buried itself on impact.

NASA launched an Atlas V rocket to the moon on 18 June with two satellites riding on top: the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) and the LCROSS. The LRO is in orbit 31 miles above the moon’s surface, mapping the moon in high resolution for future landing sites and gathering crucial data on the lunar environment that will help astronauts prepare for long-duration lunar expeditions.

NASA dropped the LCROSS with the empty two-and-a-half ton Centaur upper stage of the Atlas rocket still attached out of orbit late Oct. 8 to begin angling for the lunar surface. The Centaur hit the surface first, closely followed by the LCROSS. The impacts were expected to excavate more than 350 metric tons of lunar material and create a crater 66 feet in diameter and a depth of 13 feet.

The Centaur and LCROSS hit the Cabeus crater near the moon’s south pole. The sun never rises above certain crater rims at the lunar pole, and some crater floors may not have seen sunlight for billions of years. With temperatures estimated to be near minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit, these craters can “cold trap” or capture most volatiles or water ice.

***A variety of Space Craft and NASA models are available at Warplanes.com.