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In another life I was the S-3 Air for a tank battalion. I do not know if Transportation Battalions nowadays have such a billet. Any kind of pre-planned air support would have had to have been requested by the Trans Bn. If LT Matt was the convoy commander and he wanted Apaches he would have had to get the Trans Bn S-3 shop to coordinate that request for him. We don't know if any such request was made. If it was, the request could have been denied for any number of reasons. There is not enough aviation to go around and everybody doesn't get it when they ask for it.

I don't know about the 724th Trans Co., but in my experience most CSS units do not think in terms of pre-planned fires, target reference points, what batteries are in range of what points on the route, etc.

In my humble opinion Army Aviation is poorly equipped to support convoy operations. UAV's preceding the convoy would give early warning of mischief up ahead, but no Trans companies will be getting UAV's any time soon. Propeller-driven, fixed-wing light attack aircraft dedicated to route recon and QRF on every MSR is what we need, but Army Aviation doesn't have any of those and the Air Force doesn't want that mission. We need our Mohawks back.

I still don't understand the LONG time before there was any QRF on scene, and it was armor when it arrived. I still don't know why any helos in range weren't immediately diverted to the scene. Lives might have been saved, and one POW not captured. My only guess is that when the LT in the lead vehicle got shot up, the entire convoy lost their comms. What a cluster foxtrot. Unsat. Totally unsat.

I don't know about the 724th Trans Co., but in my experience most CSS units do not think in terms of pre-planned fires, target reference points, what batteries are in range of what points on the route, etc.

That would be difficult for a trans convoy to do. Ambushes are seldom triggered from fixed positions. The situation is different on every mission. There is the possibility of keeping track of what batteries are in range, but most convoys would pass through several on a run.
When the grunts go into a position they have the benefit of much better commo, people who’s job it is to keep track of available support and can quickly call for it. With luck a convoy will have one person with this as “additional duty as assigned”.
The combat battalion is the basic maneuver element. S-3 can usually handle the entire battalion. A transportation Battalion might have dozens of convoys running scattered over thousands of square miles.

Propeller-driven, fixed-wing light attack aircraft dedicated to route recon and QRF on every MSR is what we need, but Army Aviation doesn't have any of those and the Air Force doesn't want that mission.

Bring back the old A6 Spad!
We loved these old Korean War attack aircraft. They could hang around our route for hours and carried an awesome load of ordinance. Helicopters ran out of ammo too quickly, and the fast fliers - mostly F-4s and f-105s - ran out of fuel and ordinance quickly.