This color, silent film is raw footage from the Vietnam War. It is circa the late 1960s. It primarily shows views shot from inside a Bell UH-1 Iroquois aka Huey

helicopter, which was being used to conduct some kind of survey over large swaths of land which are on fire. It’s hard to say what is going on definitively. In Southeast Asia and Vietnam, rice residues are routinely burned after the harvest to prepare fields for the next season…so it’s possibly that. On the other hand, it might be that these are the aftermath of an airstrike and that the Hueys are being used to make an assessment of the success of that mission.

The footage starts with shot from a UH-1s door of a landscape with smoke billowing from fires. At :30 a G.I. maneuvers towards the helicopter with a Vietnamese man in tow, possibly a prisoner or intelligence asset. They board the chopper. At 1:10, landscape of rice fields and the jungle of Vietnam. At 1:14, smoke billows from the ground. At 1:32, another helicopter is visible far down below, followed by a shot of a curving river possibly the Mekong. At 2:33, multiple helicopters are seen below. At 2:46, a helicopter crewman examines what might be a map, in the open door of the UH-1. At 6:27, shots of the pilot of the Huey. At 7:10, the chopper comes in low, with smoke visible on the horizon. At 7;52, more smoke visible, some of it quite dense. At 8:05, pilot’s point of view, the burning area seems very large and possibly the result of an air strike. At 10:01, the pilot’s helmet is visible — it has a picture of a dancing man on it. At 14:40, close shot of burning area with fire visible. At 14:56, a Huey is seen from a distance, flying across a bright sky. At 16:03, the helicopter comes in close to a field for a landing. Villagers are visible in the field. At 16:39, another breathtaking overview of the burning area.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com