The C&C 50 and Minigun- 1972-3
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As soon as the CO got his in country check ride out of the way, he never flew with anyone except me. Since he always went out as Command and Control (C&C) when we were inserting the infantry in to do ground recon I decided we needed to boost our fire power a little. With his permission, I mounted a fifty caliber on the left side and a mini gun on the right side. I changed the seat layout in the rear where I could lay two wounded on the seats and the mini gun ammo tray was between the seats.
I had gone to the naval base and got a chief machinist’s mate to help me manufacture the floor mount for the fifty cal so there wouldn’t be and force transmitted to the helicopter. Maintenance raised holy hell when they saw the fifty mounted in a huey but I got the commander to make them lay off until the next scheduled maintenance and the they could dye penetrate the hard points and see if I was causing any damage to the bird. I wasn’t and they had to shut up.
I also had four fifty pound CS bombs that were air pressure activated with a lanyard to start the sequence. Two of those were on each side under the seats.
Because of the way my bird was rigged I could cover the Cobras if they had to go on a gun run to give cover to the OH-6 (little bird). Or if the little bird got shot down, the Cobras would cover me and I would drop to the tree tops and head inbound to the crash site. When they called flair, I would bottom the power, trade airspeed for lift and pray there was a landing spot when I got to the end. My crew chief and gunner would jump out and grab the downed crew and away we would go toward the nearest mash unit.