Hugh L. Mills Jr.

Lieutenant Colonel Hugh L. Mills Jr. is a retired United States Army officer who served in the Vietnam War.

Early life Mills was one of four children born to Hugh L. Mills, an educator, and his wife Don McCollum Mills in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He graduated from Hot Springs High School in 1966.

Military career Mills enlisted in the United States Army on 1 February 1967 and after attending Officer Candidate School at Fort Knox was commissioned as an armor officer on 15 December. He was then assigned as a training officer with the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron. He completed Army aviation training in late 1968.

Mills arrived in South Vietnam in January 1969, and was assigned to D Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, first flying UH-1 Hueys before transitioning to the OH-6A Cayuse and becoming scout platoon commander.

Following his first tour in South Vietnam, Mills served with the 2nd Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, in West Germany. In September 1971 he returned to South Vietnam flying the AH-1G Cobra gunship with D Troop, 3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment and then flew OH-6As as platoon commander of C Troop, 16th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Aviation Brigade. On 30 January 1972 his AH-1 was shot down as it attempted to attack a People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) antiaircraft artillery site in northwest Quảng Trị Province. Mills and his gunner were rescued after a day on the ground trapped in the wreckage. He was shot down 16 times, 15 times in the OH-6.

On his return to the United States, Mills served with the 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division, at Fort Hood, Texas and then with the 8th Aviation Battalion (Attack Helicopter) in West Germany. He later became Undersheriff with the Jackson County Missouri Sheriff's office.

In 2015 Mills returned to Vietnam to research a sequel to his book and met members of the PAVN unit that had shot him down in 1972. The trip was also part of a planned documentary film.

The United States Army Aviation Museum’s OH-6 is painted in the colors of Mills' Miss Clawd IV (his OH-6A when he was with C Troop, 16th Cavalry).