Other developments occurred in the early months of 1963 which either directly or indirectly affected the conduct of Marine helicopter operations. One was the improved coordination of intelligence gathering and usage among all South Vietnamese and American agencies within I Corps. This effort, which was essentially a concerted drive to streamline the collection and flow of intelligence information, was stimulated by a series of corps-wide intelligence seminars, the first of which was held in early February. Of special interest to the Marine aviators was the establishment of closer liaison between the Marine task element, U.S. Army Special Forces, and South Vietnamese units in the northern corps tactical zone. Closely related to the improvement of the overall intelligence situation was the acquisition of some new equipment by the SHUFLY Marines. In March the task element received two new model hand-held aerial cameras for use by the crews of the O-1B observation aircraft. Later in the month a photo lab was completed to facilitate the rapid processing of the photographs. By the end of the month the Marines were also being provided with high altitude photographic coverage of some objective areas taken by U.S. Air Force reconnaissance jets. The tempo of Marine helicopter operations began to quicken in early April with the advent of sustained periods of clear weather. On 13 April, HMM-162 participated in a major heliborne assault in which 435 2d ARVN Division troops were lifted into a suspected Communist stronghold in the mountains along the Song Thu Bon, about 30 miles south of Da Nang. As in most troop lift missions, the Marine O-1Bs provided reconnaissance and radio relay support. For the first time in the war Marine transport helicopters were escorted by helicopter gunships, the UH-1B Iroquois (a single-engine, turbine-powered utility helicopter built by the Bell Helicopter Company). Five UH-1Bs from a detachment of the Army’s Da Nang-based 68th Aviation Company, armed with M-60 machine gun clusters and 2.75-inch rockets, joined the VNAF fighter bombers to conduct preparatory airstrikes on the landing zones. The initial landing met no enemy resistance but later in the day action in the operational area intensified. A Marine UH-34D was hit by eight rounds of enemy small arms fire while attempting to evacuate wounded South Vietnamese soldiers and U.S. Army advisors from a landing zone near the point where the ARVN forces had been landed that morning. With the copilot, First Lieutenant John D. Olmen, wounded, the badly damaged aircraft force landed in the Vietnamese position.