Chinooks in SVN 1966
Further to the photo of a Chinook bringing in fuel drums to a DZ in South Vietnam, I have one I took on departure from Vung Tau on 31 March 1966, as seen from the flight deck of a C130 A of No 36 Squadron.
This photo shows Chinooks just off the end of the psp runway, fuel drums lined up to the left as you look at it, and Iroquois in the foreground.
We had arrived overhead some two hours earlier but were told to orbit whilst US Marine Chinooks airlifted marines onto the runway. They then boarded a whole fleet of Iroquois helicopters that then lifted them over the airfield perimeter and straight into a fire fight. Only once things had died down a bit were we allowed in to land. It was whilst orbiting that I took my first photo looking down onto the airfield: this shows the Iroquois lined up on the runway and Caribou from the RAAF detachment on the adjacent pan.