Brian Abraham; re post #13 regarding 9SQN RAAF Vietnam War operations. With respect, you are way offside.
9SQN RAAF flew 58,768 hours, 237,806 sorties during 5.5 years (2,000 days) of Vietnam war involvement. That was the highest flying effort of any Air Force unit in any campaign since the inception of the RAAF in 1921.
The squadron did perform 1,100 plus SAS patrol insertions/extractions and 110 were in contested situations; but that was only a portion of the much broader effort in support of all of the 1ATF fighting arms, US and Vietnamese forces.
The primary role was support of the Infantry battalions with direct involvement in the fighting during hundreds of engagements. Lots of ammunition resupplies and casevacs during brawls. 7 aircraft were lost due to multiple causes and another 23 suffered mostly minor battle damage. 6 aircrew were killed and 8 wounded.
Regrettably; much misinformation mostly based on hearsay has been propagated over the past 40 years, some of it disappointingly originated by members of the other services. A recent example is the book VIETNAM: The Australian War by Paul Ham. Unfortunately; if lies are told often enough, they become the accepted truth.
The following statistics may help dispel some of the mythology generated over a few decades. Note in particular the casevacs, ammunition expenditure, maintenance effort and aircraft availability.