page_title: 18th Aviation Brigade (United States)
section_title: Gulf War
hierarchical_section_title: 18th Aviation Brigade (United States) / History / Gulf War
caption_attribution_description: A U.S. Army Bell UH-1H Huey helicopter of Battery B, 1st Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, 18th Aviation Brigade, flies over an abandoned town in Saudi-Arabia during Operation Desert Shield on 9 December 1990.
context_page_description: The 18th Aviation Brigade is an inactive aviation brigade of the United States Army. Its initial formation in 1987 drew upon the resources of the 269th Aviation Battalion, originally formed in 1966.
context_section_description: On 17 August 1987, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 18th Aviation Brigade, was activated. On 1 September 1987, the 269th Aviation Battalion was reorganized and redesignated as the 18th Aviation Brigade (Corps)(Airborne). The brigade has since participated in Operation Prime Chance in the Persian Gulf, Operation Just Cause in Panama, and "Desert Shield and Storm" in Southwest Asia, and Hurricane Andrew Relief in Southern Florida.
  On the first day of the Gulf War 24 February 1991, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) began its attack with its Boeing AH-64 Apaches, Bell AH-1 Cobras, 60 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks and 40 Boeing CH-47 Chinooks augmented by the XVIII Airborne Corps' 18th Aviation Brigade and began lifting the 1st Brigade into what became Forward Operating Base Cobra (FOB), 93 miles (150 km) into Iraq and halfway to the Euphrates River. Over three hundred helicopter sorties ferried the troops and equipment into the objective area in the largest heliborne operation in military history. Four of the CH-47D Chinooks from A Co 2/159th were temporarily assigned to the 82nd airborne for the war but were released after the first day of the ground war and after objectives on MSR Texas were completed and their assistance's along with the rest of the Battalion was needed elsewhere in theatre supporting the 101st, 24ID and 82nd when called.
  The other operation the brigade administered in the Gulf was the activities of Task Force 118, the former Operation Prime Chance force. TF 118, or 4th Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, as it became on 15 January 1991, operated armed Bell OH-58D Kiowas off U.S. Navy warships.
caption: An 18th Aviation Brigade UH-1H during "Desert Shield", 1990
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