The Delivery Platoon's main focus was to deliver "photographic material" (pictures and film with accompanying reports provided by the Imagery Interpreters) to the various combat commanders in the field for strategic purposes.The Reproduction Section developed and printed the film, Imagery Interpretation examined the prints and wrote up a report indicating what was found on the pictures. Delivery of this material was either by a drop from the air or hand delivery upon landing. Specific spots were set up for drops when landing was either impossible or not needed.

To accomplish this mission the Battalion is provided an aerial delivery platoon consisting of eight U-6A de Havilland Beaver utility aircraft with the necessary personnel to fly and maintain aircraft.

Delivery Platoon "Good Guys" by Donald "Scotty" McMillan; the original "Good Guy"

Det D Delivery Platoon

Bill Riseling, Det D, Crew Chief, Good Guy 562, 1970 - 1971

Most of the time flights were peaceful however there were few times when we did fly into a "hot" LZ and experienced some in-coming rounds and small arms fire, made our drop, and got the hell out of there as quickly as possible. We once experienced a small engine fire, made an emergency landing and I did a quick repair to complete our mission.

We did ferry troops returning from the jungle at times. A particular time we picked up 2 of ours (grunts) with 2 VC for transport back to Tan Son Nhut airfield for questioning. They were in the back of the plane (my Good Guy 562) and there was a lot of serious interrogation going on during that flight. The pilot sat in his left seat and as always I sat in my right co-pilot seat. We concentrated only on our flight path on that particular flight.

Another time we ferried a soldier (I believe) from LZ English back to Saigon. He was to be awarded the Medal of Honor. I've tried several times on the Internet to find out who that particular soldier (or a witness) was but cannot find anything convincing to whom it may have been, and why.

The delivery platoon in Det D spent many a night at various LZ's (mostly all PSP runways) and continued with our mission requirements the following day. We got to see allot of Vietnam from the air and many different parts of the country by visiting many drop zones. From the air we witnessed many a firefight. Made us very happy we were in the air. I am sure there are other delivery platoons with experiences who will attest to this. The saying was "flyboys had it made" over there. I agree to that analogy for many reasons for which I am thankful today from my personal Vietnam experience.

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