: A few years ago Bell Helicopter made available
: silver coins of the huey. The coins are
: numbered. I purchased one but could not get
: the number I wanted. the coinI have is 834.
: Did we have an "834" in our unit?
: not sure. But anyway I have that coin. not
: interested in selling it, but it would be
: nice to know who had that bird.
: Salute
: BT

You are still an old rattlesnake...

Hope you're hanging in there with the abuse they are throwing at you, Bob.

UH-1H 66-16834 "Good Vibrations" was picked up new by WO Tim Moon to ferry back to Pleiku. He promptly had a hydraulic failure and stuffed the ship into An Khe without incident. First-hand account.

By the time 1LT Mike Bonthuis had the ship, he was Yellow Flight lead and 834 came equipped with a 150 lb. CE named "Doc" who wore both halves of his chicken plate, two M-60s with the flash suppressors sawed off, a lot of ammo,and a gunner named Eggy. Three (count 'em, 3) hydraulic failures and running landings later, we decided we might have a hydraulic "issue" and started hanging lucky rabbits' feet off the rearview. Problem solved.

Solved, at least, until another crew rolled the ship in a Happy Valley LZ in early May 69.

834 was back, rebuilt, when Al Mixer arrived in September 69, and was finally shot down for good when an ARVN 105mm round impacted right under her tailboom in Cambodia, Spring of 1970.

You got a good one there. That ship saved a lot of lives.

Doc