Collection related to 2784336 Signalman Stuart Lindsay Weller, 104 Signal Squadron, and his service in Vietnam between 1967 and 1968.

Iroquois helicopters coming in over 2 RAR's lines to land at Luscombe Airstrip. The helicopters are from an American unit that Task Force would have hired for a troop insertion. One of 477 colour 35mm transparencies taken or collected by 2784336 Signalman (Sig) Stuart Lindsay Weller, 104 Signal Squadron, relating to his service in Vietnam between 1967 and 1968. Sig Weller remembers: "In a slightly ragged line the Hueys came in over the rubber above Luscombe Bowl. The digs in 7 RAR were about to go to work. I think the term used in Vietnam for a flight of helicopters like this was a ‘stick’. Each helicopter could carry about nine soldiers so if the stick consisted of say, 10 aircraft, in a very short time a unit of some 100 men could be inserted into a zone. The helicopters in this stick came down one side of Luscombe and another stick came down the other. The men were bunched in groups every twenty metres or so down the edge of the strip, and as a helicopter landed, the soldiers quickly piled on. There were no seats – this form of helicopter (in essence, a troop carrier) was known as a ‘slick’ – and I’m sure the men would have practiced this form of loading and unloading many times. I remember marvelling at the speed with which the whole pick-up was achieved. The first helicopter was lifting off some time before the last helicopter had even landed."