The U.S. Army’s Lift-Anything, Go-Anywhere Helicopter

Through more than 58 years of peace and war, the Boeing Vertol CH-47 Chinook has performed as a modern army’s lifeline, a status even its builders couldn’t have envisioned when it first took to the sky in 1961. The helicopter’s first combat experience came in 1965, when the aircraft carrier USS Boxer arrived in Vietnam with 57 CH-47As below its deck, and wherever U.S. (and many foreign) armies have been since, the Chinook has followed. With powerful engines and tandem rotors, the Chinook has hauled everything from combat troops to heavy artillery to boats, and has flown rescue as well as transport missions. These stories, told by the people who flew and crewed them and by those they served, illustrate why the U.S. Army plans to employ the Chinook until 2060, making it an airframe that will have lasted for nearly a century of service.