Tread,
Do I recall the CH-46 had something of a structural issue early on (I saw a macabre joke that an airborne CH-46 could potentially become a formation of two CH-23s...)?
I met a very nice fellow who had reached senior management at one of the Gulf of Mexico outfits that had in his service in the US Navy been a pilot in just such a CH-23...and survived the event despite it having occurred in cruise flight. I rubbed his shoulder raw hoping such luck would rub off on to me.