Nam Notes 1 - The MP and the VC: Tail Rotor Tales

About this Blog

I intend posting a series of exciting personal stories about helicopter operations during the Vietnam conflict. They will be called 'Nam Notes 1, 2, etc. I served with the Royal Australian Air Force, No. 9 Sqn in 1969. We operated Bell UH-1H Iroquois helicopters, commonly referred to as ‘Hueys’. This nickname derived from their original military designation of HU-1 (Helicopter, Utiltiy-1). The crew composition was two pilots, a crewman who manned an M60 machine gun and operated the winch and a door gunner with an M60. We flew in support of Australian and New Zealand Army units, from their forward base at Nui Dat, in Phuoc Tuy Province, about seventy five kilometres to the south east of the Capital, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). The squadron’s main mission was troop-carrying sorties of various types. These included; the insertion and extraction of reconnaissance and fighting patrols, Special Air Service operations, general troop movement and MedEvac. The squadron also had a gun-ship fli

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