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Mike Siegel (Sep67 to Sep68):
Medevac was another type of mission that was sometimes exciting. I was unsuccessful in keeping count, but I know we medevac-ed over 200 wounded. Unlike the real medevac units, we did not a have a medic on board. We just picked up and delivered. I'm proud to say that on more than a few occasions we went in when the real medevac units (the aircraft with call sign 'Dustoff') wouldn't. Shooting an approach to a hot LZ , all lights out, the guy on the ground shining a light through the barrel of an M79 40mm grenade launcher, and your crew chief and gunner leaning out of the bird telling you to move in a certain direction so you wouldn't hit the trees - that was interesting.
Pat Eastes: Reading Siegel's discussion on dust offs, again spurred my brain into action. Only once did I perform a medevac, and I believe that it was during the height of Tet 68. One of the ground troops had been in contact and we were air support for them. After things settled down, the ground guys called for a dust off, but the medevac crew wouldn't go in, still considering the area to be hot. We had pretty much laid waste to the area, and I felt confident that we could do the evac as long as the troops were ambulatory and could fit inside a gunship. They were, and as I recall, we brought 3 ground cav wounded back to Cu Chi. The LZ was, as I suspected, cold.