Wondering if anyone remembers chicken plate chest armor. A recent post in the Forum brought up a question about the stopping effectiveness of modern 'level 3' body armor in stopping a .44 Magnum bullet. Instantly made me recall the old chicken plate chest armor we had in 'Nam. Those things were about an inch thick plus of some kind of ceramic - covered by a stinking, rotting OD canvas cover. They were designed to be worn over the front of the body. Just had to share a story:
We had little armor plate on our CH-47C Chinook - only place we had any was over the flight control cabinet just behind the cockpit. Going into extra hazardous area, sometimes the pilots would strap on chicken plate protective vests as protection from ground small arms fire. Chicken plate vests were available for the gunner and the crew chief on the door guns but none for the flight engineer.
When I flew as crew chief on the right gun, I always placed the chicken plate under my gunner's seat. Ground fire always came from below the aircraft (not from the side). The bad guys didn't fly aircraft against us - so the only bad guys shooting at us were below us....
I used to have different pilots every day, whether on my ship (I was flight engineer) or when I was flying as crew chief or door gunner on somebody else's ship. They were mostly Warrant Officers, but a couple of the pilots were Lieutenants or Captains. One of the Captains (pilots) seemed to take extra effort in chewing my butt on a regular basis. On hot missions I kept my chicken plate under my gunner seat to block ground fire. The Captain constantly turned back - looked at me - and ordered me to " PUT the ------ chicken plate back on!". I would, and as soon as he began driving the helicopter again - off came the chicken plate and back under my seat. Usually happened 5 or 6 times every day and every mission with the Captain. It never bothered any of the other pilots.
The Captain wasn't a bad guy. He just never understood that I didn't want to earn a Purple Heart by being shot in the arse.
We had little armor plate on our CH-47C Chinook - only place we had any was over the flight control cabinet just behind the cockpit. Going into extra hazardous area, sometimes the pilots would strap on chicken plate protective vests as protection from ground small arms fire. Chicken plate vests were available for the gunner and the crew chief on the door guns but none for the flight engineer.
When I flew as crew chief on the right gun, I always placed the chicken plate under my gunner's seat. Ground fire always came from below the aircraft (not from the side). The bad guys didn't fly aircraft against us - so the only bad guys shooting at us were below us....
I used to have different pilots every day, whether on my ship (I was flight engineer) or when I was flying as crew chief or door gunner on somebody else's ship. They were mostly Warrant Officers, but a couple of the pilots were Lieutenants or Captains. One of the Captains (pilots) seemed to take extra effort in chewing my butt on a regular basis. On hot missions I kept my chicken plate under my gunner seat to block ground fire. The Captain constantly turned back - looked at me - and ordered me to " PUT the ------ chicken plate back on!". I would, and as soon as he began driving the helicopter again - off came the chicken plate and back under my seat. Usually happened 5 or 6 times every day and every mission with the Captain. It never bothered any of the other pilots.
The Captain wasn't a bad guy. He just never understood that I didn't want to earn a Purple Heart by being shot in the arse.
