The Army’s helicopters have a number of names you recognize immediately: Apache, Black Hawk, Kiowa, Lakota, and Comanche. They are also known as the names of Native American tribes. This is not a coincidence.
Related: The 5 Native American tribes most feared by the US Army
This was originally due to Army Regulation 70-28 (which has since been rescinded). This regulation detailed the criteria for assigning popular names to major items of equipment:
- Appeal to the imagination without sacrificing dignity.
- Suggest an aggressive spirit and confidence in the item’s capabilities.
- Reflect the item’s characteristics, including mobility, agility, flexibility, firepower, and endurance.
- Be based on tactical application, not source or method of manufacture.
- Be associated with the preceding qualities and criteria if a person’s name is proposed.
Today, while the regulation is gone, the tradition remains, and there is a procedure to pick a new name. The Bureau of Indian Affairs keeps a list of names for the Army to use. When the Army gets a new helicopter (or fixed-wing aircraft), the commanding officer of the Army Materiel Command (the folks who buy the gear) prepares a list of five names.
They can’t just be any names. These names must instill confidence in the helicopter or plane’s abilities; they cannot sacrifice dignity and must promote an aggressive spirit. Those names then have to be run by the United States Patent Office, of all places. There’s a lot more bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo to go through, but eventually a name is picked.
Then comes something unique: the helicopter or aircraft is part of a ceremony attended by Native American leaders, who bestow tribal blessings upon it. You might be surprised, given that the Army and the Native Americans were on opposite sides of the Indian Wars, and those wars went on for 148 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Despite the 148 years of hostilities, Native Americans served with distinction in the United States military. Eli Parker, the only Native American to reach the rank of general, was a personal aide to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War. Most impressively, 25 Native Americans have received the Medal of Honor for heroism.
In other words, the Army’s helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft bear names that honor fierce and courageous warriors who have also served well in the United States Army. That is a legacy worth remembering and honoring with some of the Army’s most prominent systems.
Why Army Helicopters have Native American names
