Vietnam clone...”The Shillelagh“

[lemaymiami]

Spent a bit of time in choppers back in 1971 and considering that the metal between you and any incoming was not much heavier than a beer can.... my sidearm was the least of my worries... I was never a combat trooper, just a REMF hitching a ride in one direction or other, but never saw even a hint of a chopped carbine that year. You did see large number of regular carbines with ARVNs but that was about it...

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[lemaymiami]

We simply called them "slicks" (that well known Huey in the statue set up as a medevac bird)... The ride I liked the best was in a small bird called a LOACH. It looked like a clear egg with a stick on the back (the tail boom) and only carried a pilot and an observer. That thing was so maneuverable that the pilot could fly it up under trees - or simply tend a perimeter all day long. Where I was they had hunter/killer teams composed of a LOACH poking along at ground level, while way up above just about out of sight lurked a Cobra gunship chopper. When the "white" unit took fire it E & E'd out of there while the "red" unit came down and took care of business..... I remember them being called pink teams for the white/red combination.

To this day I still don't equate any chopper ride as being for fun... even though I was just a ride along. Where I was, well north of DaNang choppers were like the cross-town bus. You didn't go anywhere if you weren't flying.