During most of my tour we were always having problems with the brass. They were always figuring our payloads at 1200 pounds which broke down to six GIs. Most pilots felt comfortable with only five passengers. That was also carrying between 900 and 1100 pounds of fuel. Most of the firebases around Dak To were not bad so a thousand pounds of cargo was what we would carry. The Plei-Trap was completely different. The west winds would come through those passes and cause all kinds of problems. Nothing worse then losing your air cushion as you tried to hover into some of those pads. There was one load master by the call sign of the Red Fox who was the load master at Dak To and at Polei-Kleng while we were in the Plei-Trap. The man had his stuff together. He knew in the morning we could carry more because of the cooler tempetures and by 1100 hrs he would adjust the loads to 800-900 pounds. We would also carry less fuel in the afternoons to help with the control problems.

When I got into the guns I had to learn a whole new system. Dry season was two and half to three trays of mini gun ammo and 10 pound rockets with 800 pounds of fuel. As the dry season ended we could carry four trays of mini gun ammo and 17 pound rockets with 800 pounds of fuel. On my ship we would only use the 10 pound rockets. Ship seemed to fly better and I really thought 17 pounds rocket were not as good as they claimed. Besides my two A/Cs, Waldo and Pigpen, Mr. Gill and Mr. Garrison were about the best two pilots I ever saw when it came to putting a rocket into somebody's back pocket.

I always get a kick out of watching the TV and they have ten Hueys landing in a landing zone. The biggest one I ever saw in the central highlands held two ships. Most were hover holes from bomb caters. The couple of times we did go the coast they could understand why we didn't have cargo hooks. We told them that where we came from a slide load blowing to the breeze below the ship was a first class ticket to the bone yard.