That big mountain near Dak Seang was full of the bad guys in August of 1968 also. I made my infamous night extraction from the hover hole where I carried out the crew of four, five SF and eight little people in a single lift. Torque went well over 50, scared the hell out of everyone. Green tracers everywhere, orange tracers coming down like rain, rockets that were too close for comfort and us there with no lights on. Larry was holding a flashlight with a red lens so that the guns would know where we were. I remember taking off flying back along the entry route and we watched the guns flying and shooting right past us with us struggleing to turn on the lights so that we could be seen. Deacon Palmer was one of the guns that night. Stoney Burke was my copilot, Larry and Rex were the crew. I was so nervous that I turned the aircraft over to Stoney on the way back to Dak To, but everyone was screaming at me so I had to regain control of the aircraft and fly it to Dak To (Stoney was a little nervous too). I was so nervous that I passed out after the landing. When I came to, I was being held up in a seated position by two of the SF. I do remember the big hug and a kiss that J.R. Janis planted on my neck as he was calling me a beautiful SOB. The rest is a fog.

Huey