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Photo Credit: National Archives (negative7680) #11C6 A Casper Platoon Huey crew prepares to extract a team of 173d Airborne Brigade Sky Soldiers from an extremely Hot LZ.
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Plucking Troops From A Hot LZ Reprint from: SKY SOLDIER Time Life Books
A Casper Platoon UH-1 Huey, its door gunner firing at a well-concealed enemy, prepares to extract troops of the 173d Airborne Brigade pinned down near the Ai Loa River in the Binh Dinh Province on March 29, 1970. |
With circling gunships providing support from above, Sky Soldiers return VC sniper fire and Casper completes the extraction. Such rescue missions were frequent, necessary and fraught with danger. Troop-carrying Huey "Slicks" often had to descend into determined VC & NVA fire to pluck the stranded soldiers from their predicament. Often these missions succeeded, with largely inconsequential damage to the helicopters. At other times, the toll on the choppers was a heavy one.
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