You know, Tom, Ron will remember that there were a lot of reports of aircraft lights at night along the border near us in early 1969.

Word was (now confirmed) NVA helicopters.

This led to discussion of possible helicopter "dogfights" and how best to approach same.

Conventional wisdom amongst crew chiefs at the time was that altitude was paramount. Get above the other guy, climb. No. 1, he couldn't shoot UP through his rotor disk; and No. 2, if you were on top, not only could you shoot down on the guy, you could drop something heavy, like, for example... ohhh... yer Peter Pilot (in his armored seat, of course) into his main rotor.

We never got a chance to test the tactic, unfortunately. Not a doubt in my mind, it woulda worked. You miss with the Peter Pilot, you follow up with yer Gunner, as long as he's wearing a chicken plate.

Manfred von Kilpatrick