The destruction of the Indians was asymmetric war, compounded by deviousness in the name of imperialist manifest destiny. White America shot, imprisoned, lied, swindled, preached, bought, built and voted its way to domination. Identifying powerful weapons and victorious campaigns with those we subjugated serves to lighten the burden of our guilt. It confuses violation with a fair fight.
It is worse than denial; it is propaganda. The message carried by the word Apache emblazoned on one of history’s great fighting machines is that the Americans overcame an opponent so powerful and true that we are proud to adopt its name. They tested our mettle, and we proved stronger, so don’t mess with us. In whatever measure it is tribute to the dead, it is in greater measure a boost to national sense of superiority. this message of superiority is with U.S. and nations whose governments buy the Apache helicopters we sell. It is shared, too, with those who hear the whir of an Apache overhead or find its guns trained on them. the moral stakes in provocative, instructive terms: “We might react differently if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes ‘Jew’ and ‘Gypsy.’
Most—but not all—are Army helicopters. Some are currently in service, some have retired and others never got off the drawing board.
Aircraft and missiles in service include the:
• AH-64 Apache attack helicopter
• UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter
• UH-72 Lakota utility helicopter
• CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift transport helicopter
• OH-58 Kiowa observation helicopter, which the Army is considering retiring them
• OH-6 Cayuse observation helicopter
• TH-67 Creek trainer helicopter—the Army may retire them, too
• C-12 Huron transport aircraft
• RU-21 Ute electronic intelligence aircraft, a variant of the C-12
• BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missile
The retired aircraft are the:
• UH-1 Iroquois utility helicopter, retired in 2011
• H-34 Choctaw transport helicopter, left service in early 1970s
• RU-8 Seminole utility aircraft, 1992
• H-21 Shawnee transport helicopter, 1967
• OV-1 Mohawk twin-engine observation aircraft, 1996
• T-41 Mescalero trainer aircraft, no longer in the Army but still flying for the Air Force
Proposed but never fielded:
• SM-64 Navaho experimental cruise missile, canceled in 1957
• AH-56 Cheyenne attack helicopter, abandoned in 1972
• RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopter, 2004
• ARH-70 Arapaho armed reconnaissance helicopter, 2008
i honored bush
i named my dog after him