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Glad we had CH-46's later on to get grunts in and out faster. Saved a lot of lives.

Northern I-corps was far too hilly to walk like you guys had to. Presented new challenges of course, like hauling wounded out on long slings lowered into the triple canopy trees.

Actually, the walking was important: the enemy never knew which way were coming until it was too late since we moved at night and usually in smaller units. We caught a lot of them that way and they really worked hard not to get caught.

Helicopters were great but the tradeoff was that they were really noisy and visible and the enemy knew exactly where we were when we arrived. Now, there is no question at all of the superb usefulness in helicopter medevacs - I owe my life to 1st Lt McDonough and his crew in a UH-34D from HH-361. Marine medevac pilots were the best of the best and nobody any where was braver.

I think that we were more successful than the army at cornering the enemy because of our extensive walking in rather than flying. But I may be kidding myself - I need to see how the same sized units compare in the record.

When I was released from the hospital, I was assigned as a sergeant to HMMT-302 in Tustin and taught new door gunners how to shoot the .50 from that right window on CH-46s. Fun stuff!