Wet season view of 'Smokey', an Iroquois helicopter of the 135th Assault Helicopter Company ...

Wet season view of 'Smokey', an Iroquois helicopter of the 135th Assault Helicopter Company (135th AHC), United States Army, laying smoke to blanket one side of the landing zone(LZ). A flight of five other helicopters are following. 'Smokey' is a standard Iroquois UH1-H helicopter with 200 litres of oil pumped into the jet exhaust to lay the smoke. 'Smokey' is normally first at the landing zone and vulnerable to enemy fire as it flies at low altitude. Consequently the helicopter has four M60 machine guns instead of the normal two. As increasing numbers of aircraft of the 135th AHC were shot down, 'Smokey' had to be used for troop transport so the protection given by the smoke barrier had to be given up. RAN Helicopter Flight Vietnam (RANHFV) is serving with the 135th AHC in Vietnam. Due to its integrated nature, the unit was designated an 'experimental military unit', with the nickname EMU. Based originally at Vung Tau Air Base, the company moved to Fire Support Base Black Horse near Xuan Loc in December 1967. In November 1968 the unit was moved to Bearcat Base, north east of Saigon. Throughout their service in Vietnam members of RANHFV provided tactical airlift and gunship support for Australian and allied ground forces.