[rotorwash]

I have no argument with medevac, and my experience with medevac units was that they got first priority on new equipment, and by all rights, they should have. Getting shot down three times in one day is an achievement, but not unique, it happened to other crews. We had great respect for medevac crews, to the point that we were especially aggressive when escorting them, and as far as crew losses go, they were a close second to scout crews whose loss rate was pushing 50%.

Concerning Caribous, I submit this quote from Wikipedia:

"Under the Johnson-McConnell agreement of 1966, the Army relinquished the fixed wing Caribou to the United States Air Force in exchange for an end to restrictions on Army rotary wing operations. On 1 January 1967, the 17th, 57th, 61st, 92nd, 134th, and 135th Aviation Companies of the U.S. Army were inactivated and their aircraft transferred respectively to the newly-activated 537th, 535th, 536th, 459th, 457th, and 458th Troop Carrier Squadrons of the USAF. . . ."

The Army was pushing this just a little in early 1966, they were evaluating the Buffalo, an improved, turbine engined version that I personally saw scrape the paint off the underside of the tail on takeoff. Empty, it could take off from a football field over the goal posts, although I am told it would have a problem on a rugby pitch.

If you rode in an Army Caribou in 68 or 69, it was certainly not the usual situation.

The 1/9 Cav started the whole episode days before the LZ X-Ray insertion. They killed 99 NVA when they overran a hospital and this was before the real battle started. 1/9 gunship doorgunners killed on average, over a hundred enemy a month. This does not include those killed by the main gunship armament, the scouts or the blues. Most of those kills were face to face at less then 50 feet distance.

Rotorwash