Xmas of ‘71 found me TDY in Tuy Hoa. The helicopter and crew had been assigned to support MACV and SOG groups/bases out in Indian Country, west of Tuy Hoa. What we were actually doing was taking beer, mail, etc. and passengers around to the different camps. We had been doing this maybe 2 weeks.

NOW, at this time, Nixon was doing his American troop withdrawal act and Tuy Hoa base was almost a ghost town. We quartered with some Air Force types - pilots and their crewmembers. Make a long story short, they set up a deal in Tuy Hoa ville and ask us to fly over there to "Do the deal" for the Xmas party they planned.

Sooo, just after dark, we moseyed on down to the active flight line, past armed guards etc, lit the fires of the Lycoming L-13 engine, which our slick had, got ahold of the tower and took off. ‘Twas about a 3 minute flight to the Ville. We landed, took on 8 passengers, and returned to Tuy Hoa's active flight line.

As we hovered and slowly moved sideways to park our bird, an Air Force truck pulls up. We were the only moving aircraft on the entire Tuy Hoa base that Xmas eve evening, so I am sure we were being watched by personnel, if for nothing more than sheer boredom. Throwing Army blankets over our passengers and hustling them over to the truck ended "our part of the deal."

What we had done was went and picked up some whores for the Xmas party. Being just 7 days before payday, all I got to do was drink the free beer…which I did with gusto that night. So much for Xmas in Nam, but it was fun doing something totally against Army regs for once. (Sigh)

About 2 weeks later, the ship was lost; she was a good one. Seems a few folks weren’t still in the Xmas spirit when we happened to fly over them.