It was a 12.7 mm. Fella that won that prize was our platoon leader, Cpt. John Sensing. Rooting around in the A Shau Valley and won the lottery. He had some serious vibrations as a result of the blade having been inflated a fair bit. Too, it was chirping like a parrot and we were scratching our noggins at Camp Eagle when he was 10 miles out. This occurred in April ‘70, just a few days before I went home. He and his gunner, SP4 Statton were killed a few weeks later during the battle at FSB Ripcord.
My dad was on Ripcord. Got shot a few weeks before his tour was up. Charlie 2/506 was under 30 men after Hill 1000.
