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Sp 5 Denny Dillon was a rigger assigned to the 623rd
Quartermaster in Cam Rahn Bay loading Sealand trailers for a month and
then managing a bunch of civilians repairing parachutes.(Sep 68 - Feb
69) and thankfully transferred to 5th Special Forces Co B
Pleiku Air Movement (Mar 69 Jun 69). He made airdrops and resupply to SF
"A" sites and was involved with the Ben Het Siege in May and June of
1969. Toward the end of May, landing at the Ben Het airstrip became
impossible because of enemy fire. Airdrop of supplies began May 28th
and were initially dropped on the airstrip. A firefight usually resulted
while recovering the supplies. It was decided to drop supplies inside
the camp. 42 sorties were flown between June 3 - 21. Eight aircraft were
damaged and three people wounded during the C7A resupply of Ben Het (Checo).
He remembers a refrigerator being airdropped (if a guy's going to get
shot at at least have some cold beer) and of course the never ending
supply of cattle. Most of the time belly straps were forgotten and they
had to be butchered right away as most cows don't know how to do a PLF.
On one flight, under fire, a Caribou sustained a very large hole in the
vertical stabilizer and a few holes in the wings. (Sorry, I don't
remember which aircraft and can't find the picture I took of it. If
anybody knows, shout!!) I reached my end of service term and left Pleiku
for Nha Trang and Cam Rahn June 15th (according to
records---seems to me it was more like June 22 or 23, I don’t remember
spending a week back in Nha Trang). Hope everyone enjoys the pictures.
Most are slide conversions so I apologize for the quality. |
