Good guess LW! During the competition with the French for the Turkish Jandama award, we got rid of all the seats except for the two gunners seats ( occupied by two SA crew-one former USMC 53 Crewchief and one former 82nd Airborne H-60 Crewchief ). Laced the floor with a matrix of US military cargo tie-down straps and regularly carried 26 combat loaded Jandarma infantry.
Forgot to add: One of our former Vietnam Cav pilots had 53 in the back….but just the troops-no weapons ammo etc.
Some background: this fly-off competition consisted of a six month long tactical/maintenance/mountain performance evaluation in far eastern Turkey. Missions were to move and support Turkish Jandarma units as they pursued the PKK terrorist units. Jandarma officer on each flight to monitor and report.
Last edited by JohnDixson; 20th March 2024 at 02:11.
Reason: Added details