The top picture shows the maintenance hangar in May of 1967. The aircraft in the foreground is 64-XXX580, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" About this time, our '64 model aircraft got modifications to remove the FM homing antennas from the mounts on the front of the nose and relocate them to a conceiled position where they would no longer be broken off by troops in the LZ or by flying through tree tops. At the same time, the high pressure hydrolic reservoir, located in the transmission well was replaced with a low pressure reservoir on top of the fuselage under the fairing in front of the mast. No more watching the "donkey dick" through the Quarter size window in the transmission well and refilling it, it only held a pint or so, twice a day in the field. I used to pour hydraulic fluid from opened cans into a Jack Daniel's whiskey bottle. On several occasions, Viet Namese who saw me pouring from the whiskey bottle into the helicopter asked me for some to drink! With my 30 word vocabulary, I usually made them understand that this stuff would be bad, ba moui lam, to drink. On one occasion, I was unsuccessful, and the gentleman left sipping happily on a C ration can full of 5056! The helicopters also received a mod to the intercom at this time. This principally gave the crew chief and door gunner seperate control boxes, which I am sure that my gunners appreciated, as I liked to listen to all four radios at once, to keep up with what was going on.

       The lower photo was taken on an LST in the Bassac river, near Bac Lieu. Note that the tiger on the door is not complete, lacking the blue lightning bolt, and the red tongue. Some aircraft flew for months before this mascot was completely painted on.