The First; The Longest; The Last
- Longest serving combat jet in aviation history, the North American F-100 Super Sabre. The F-100 served from mid-1961 through 1971 in combat in Southeast Asia. The Super Sabre had the USAF’s first recorded “probable” air kill of the war in 1965 against a NVAF MiG-17.
- The war was America’s last flying aces of the 20th century.
- First use of the USN’s Brown Water Navy since the US Civil War.
- First draft riots since the US Civil War.
- First US President assassinated during a year of war; since the US Civil War. First dividing of the American People since the US Civil War.
- First war for the Strategic Air Command’s (SAC) B-52 Stratofortress bombers.
- First war in living color brought into people’s living rooms, via the television (no one had TV’s during WWII, and very rare during the Korean War).
- Last war in which a conventional “all gunned” battleship fired from the gun line; USS New Jersey.
- Last war fought by US draftees.
- Longest US war.
- First US war fought by mechanized MOUNTED infantrymen on a standard basis.
- Last war fought with a COL (later General) George S. Patton Jr. (son of WWII George S. Patton Jr.); commander of the 11th ACR (Armored Cavalry Regiment) in Vietnam.
- First war fought with US Army AIRMOBILE Divisions; first helicopter war.
- First use of factory designed Attack Helicopter (Cobra).
- First use of the aerial gunships: Spooky (Puff the Magic Dragon), C-119, and the AC-130 SPECTRE.
- Last war for the Patton series US Army medium tank.
- Last use of the US Navy’s “Brown Water Navy” (Riverine Forces); first used during the US Civil War (1861-1865).
- First use of Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers in war.
- Last use of the US Army/Marine M1 steel helmet; used in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Now replaced by Kevlar. I guess you can no longer call it a “steel pot.”