Wasn't "Jolly Green Giant" a nickname coined by infantrymen in Vietnam? @sneakypete
@PeteS in CA We called them that,but I suspect it was the USAF pilots/crew that gave them the nickname.
Recon teams used them a lot because unlike the UH-34 "Huey" they didn't need forward momentum to take off. They could land or hover over a small clearing in the jungle to either allow a recon team to rappel into a thick jungle,or to rescue a recon team that was getting overran by the NVA,let everybody jump on board,and hit pitch on the rotors and take off straight up into the air like some kind of noisy express elevator.
The USN liked them for the same reason. They were pretty much ideal for rescuing shot down pilots,although I THINK they used a slightly different version.
Their only downside,besides being such a big target was they only had one door on the right side to mount a machine gun. I have no idea who no one just cut a hole in the other side,add some bracing,and add a M-60 gunner to man the door,but they didn't. The co-pilot firing his pistol out his window up front was the only defense on that side.
Come to think of it,I never saw one with rocket pods on the skids,either. I have no idea why unless the USAF and the USN thought it would be "icky",or maybe it was just impossible to modify the cabin that way and have the "chassis" support that huge engine up top?
Every one I ever flew in personally was flown by SVN AF pilots attached to SOG. They were sterile (no unit markings or even national markings) used in covert missions,so the pilots could pretty much do anything they wanted with them or to them and nobody would have said anything. I don't know about the more modern versions,but the older ones the SVN AF flew had hinges and could be opened like a car door. They also leaked a LOT of hydraulic fluid. I know of one case where one just "came apart" and dumped everybody in it out into the jungle over Laos on one of the early SOG missions. Included in the MIA were Larry Thorne,the most decorated officer in the history of Finland. He fought the Russians when they invaded Finland in the 1930's,and once the Russians won and occupied Finland,he escaped to Germany and joined the German Army and became an officer in the SS so he could continue to kill communists. When WW-2 ended,he immigrated to the US so he could enlist in the US Army as a private,and hopefully continue to kill communists. By the time he went MIA in Laos,he was a US Army Special Forces Captain. He is so famous in Finland they declared him a national hero and put up a big statue of him in their capitol.
http://sogchronicles.com/MACVSOG_-_MIA.phpDid I mention he hated communists and communism?
No,I never met him. He was a little before my time.
