"Favorite Battle Involving Helicopters?" Topic

Yep, I voted for the Mayaguez. It has a Presidential authorization for the use of chemical weapons (tear gas on the ship before the boarding party arrived), civilian volunteers to crew the ship and get steam back up to move it to safer waters, a Fleet Carrier for air support, Marines pulled from Okinawa, Air Force CH-53's from Thailand, bad intelligence that missed the Cambodians had reinforced the island from a garrison of around 40 men to over 300 and that the ships crew (hostages) had been removed from the island and were in a boat headed elsewhere. The Air Force crews were exceptional, getting their helos shot to pieces, yet those that could still fly went back to Thailand to bring in the second wave. Later they would extract the Marines (under fire). Unfortunately, 3 Marines were left behind. Most people have no idea how difficult the battle was.

For gaming, Game Warden all the way — Hueys and PBRs!

Long Tan, 18 August 1966. If not for the choppers of 9 SQN, RAAF, flying in ammo re-sup's* then DCOY 6RAR would probably have been over-run and wiped out.

* At first the RAAF GPCAPT co0mmanding the RAAF in VN refused because of the weather and need to hover while the re-sup was dropped, but a threat- to ask the US to help and letting the media know about his decision- saw him change his mind.