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Hey elmer, how you getting along with that Halligan?

Point taken......going to FM now.....

Too lazy and contented...besides, if I am going to ever leave here it would be for Canada or New Zealand.

...who in their right mind would want to go to the States, you have more bloody rules and regulations than we have!

30 pages in one day? Do any of ya'll [bleep] work? Oh,and I almost forgot,GFY.

30 pages in one day? Do any of ya'll [bleep] work? Oh,and I almost forgot,GFY.

6 by my count. You been drinking?

30 pages in one day? Do any of ya'll [bleep] work? Oh,and I almost forgot,GFY.

Thought Austria had all kinds of strict rules......

30 pages in one day? Do any of ya'll [bleep] work? Oh,and I almost forgot,GFY.

DD, interesting to hear of your flying experiences in RVN..Have a good freind that flew slicks, two tours. Only got shot down once.hot up a bunch, but the bird stayed in the air. He got checked out in the front seat of a Cobra when they first came in...had an interesting day( few seconds) on the mini-gun...

So if you flew loaches, did you get to troll for fire?

30 pages in one day? Do any of ya'll [bleep] work? Oh,and I almost forgot,GFY.

Yep, that is what I keep hearing from everyone that is not Australian.

Go figga!

Ps, Austrians have a different accent.

Nope, your accent definitely sounds Austrian, like Arnold, but without the muscles

They had a lot of ceramic and steel armor in seats and elsewhere. We lost around 1,300 of them during the war, but over 90% of those taking that ride into the dirt survived and over 80% did so without sustaining injury. Numbers were actually around 94%/85% as I recall. I flew over 1,000 combat hours in the LOH and on occasion my dodging skills were deficient, thus I had a hand in sending several to the scrap yard. Never was shot down, but made one precautionary landing due to a major fuel leak.

There's always the potential for winning the Golden BB award, but generally speaking Army choppers of that era were capable of absorbing a lot of damage before chitt went sideways. Today's versions much more so.

Funny story about one of our pilots, armor plate and nuts:

Ed Barnes was either the luckiest guy I ever met or the unluckiest, I'm not sure. He went home with 5 Purple Hearts. One was earned whilst taking a leak. A mortar round landed on the other side of a phone pole that was ostensibly his target, and he caught a piece of shrapnel in the knee. Ed got shot down 3 times one day without earning a Purple Heart. He did earn a glorious hangover the next morning however.

Ed was out with a newbie Scout pilot wannabe one day and they took some .50 cal fire. One of the rounds hit the fire extinguisher just below his right hip and then cleaved the steel armor plate under his ass and spraying his backside with shrapnel. Sidebar: Dan always sat on a flak jacket.

Anyway, with all the white extinguisher dust blowing around and his ass seemingly on fire, Ed decided they were on fire and he needed to exit the aircraft. Apparently the fact they were airborne did not factor into his decision. Lacking such bravado, the newbie had one of those WTF moments as he watched Ed dismount and get out on the skid. He took the controls and since Ed was still attached to the mic cord they had one of those come to Jesus conversations, rather impromptu and frank I'd guess.

Well, the dust cleared and though Ed was sure his ass was on fire, it was clear the aircraft was not. He got back in and they flew to the Evac Hospital. It was a long time before Ed lived that one down.

'Nuther day an AK round hit his visor and spun his helmet 90* to the left, rendering him "blind". There was a little excitement over that too, but he didn't try to eject. He said having the earpiece of the helmet mashed to his nose wasn't all that comfortable.

Clint Eastwood would never ask Ed if he felt lucky.