I knew a guy years ago who had flown Army Bell 47s in Vietnam very early in that conflict as part of an Australian combined sevices thingy. From memory he was actually RAAF.
In those days they were absolutely forbidden to have 'armed' aircraft so apart from their personal weapons were of little danger to the enemy.
He likened it to the very early days of WW1.
Boys being boys they decided that this was a little rediculous so 'perfected' various ways of taking the fight to the Vietcong. One was straffing with their rifles out the door and another was throwing handgrenades at the little dratsabs.
The Ob would lean as far out the door as his loosely adjusted straps would allow to pull the pin...thus minimising the possibility of him being hit by ground fire and dropping the bloody thing on the floor. The little Bell would be put in a dive and when the pilot yelled now the Ob would lose said ordinance
Well one day the grenade didn't fall away but sat tumbling around in some sort of swirling air...right outside the door...the Ob slapped him in the arm and pointed out the door wth wide eyed horror...he pulled all the pitch he could and it exploded right under them peppering the aircraft with shrapnel...holing the fuel tanks and causing an early return to terror firma...luckily far enough away from the baddies to allow rescue of both them and later the little Bell.
Then there was the time they took an Oz Army C180 to Cam Ranh Bay to pick up supplies. the aircraft was fitted with 250lb bomb racks underwing to which were fitted 'Storepedeos'. The managed to talk a big 'Negro' chap gaurding a HUGE dump of 250lbs to give them a couple.
"Hey sure man what you flyin?"
"Well that over there"
"Goddamn....well sure I guess"
He refuses to say what they did with said bombs but laments that the little Cessna was not fitted with a 'Stuka siren'
Or the time they decided to build a really huge bomb from various chemicals, mostly detergent, and drop it on an island in a lake that was VC. The upper ranks heard about this unauthorised use of 'chemical weapons' and nearly went berserk...when things had quietened down they completed construction of their bomb in a 44 gallon drum.
The secretly dropped it on said VC with a huge and very satisfying bang late one afternoon. The next morning they flew a recon to observe the results of their labours only to find that the lake was covered in soap sudds and 100s of 'black pajama' hanging drying from every tree branch.
He's thinks that there may have been a mistake with the quantities
Chuck.