Man, it only got worse. In April '70 there were a couple of battalions of them at Dak Seang, and they were useless. Ask Wes Peyton (1st flight AC and co. IP from about June) -- he got shot down by 'em, in THEIR own LZ and with a damn cannon, no less! The only good thing about hauling them around was you could pack about a dozen and a half each trip. Of course, that only amounted to about one-fourth or maybe one-fifth of a GI. And as you noted, their only skill was hanging on to the aircraft. The little buggers could make a twenty foot vertical jump to get onboard as you were departing!

Pickett