I was reading the member's profiles and came across a mention of Gator 374 by Ron Carey. Ron, I was in Gator 374 in November of '67 when it was riddled with bullet holes. The pilot was Junior Mason, Eddie Vigil was the crew chief and I was the gunner. I don't remember who the peter pilot was. We were landing at a little artillery base above Dak To for lunch when we flew over a company of NVAs that were going up the mountain single file on a trail to attack the artillery base. We had been in and out of there several times that morning without incident as we landed whenever the Colonel spotting artillery on board needed a fresh thermos of coffee. We were so close, I had already stowed my M-60 and hooked a wire over a round of my ammo to keep it from falling out of the box. Suddenly there were muzzle flashes everywhere below us. I didn't even unstow the M-60 but just held the triggers. In the excitement I didn't think to unhook the wire so my gun fired a few dozen rounds and the links came apart. I heard the pilot say, "Oh my God, look at the transmission oil pressure." I turned and looked, as it was one of the gauges I could see between the front seats and I saw the needle bounce off zero. We autorotated in, just outside the artillery perimeter. We set up our two M-60s toward the advancing hordes and some of the artillery pieces cranked down and fired into the woods. The advancing hordes never showed. A grunt, perhaps a cook, worked his way down to us, dragging one of those big green thermos containers used to bring hot chow to those outposts. It was full of hot coffee and he also had a cardboard box with styrofoam cups so we enjoyed a hot cup. A Chinook came and we helped strap 374 up for her extraction. I can't remember how many rounds we took, but I believe it was over a hundred. In the excitement, Eddie Vigil didn't discover he was shot until blood started running out of his boot some hours later. He had taken a round that lodged in his calf. He was sent to Japan and I heard he had some trouble with infection but I've never been able to find out any more than that.
Eric