Although heavy monsoon clouds lingered over I Corps throughout most of the month of March, brief periods of good weather sometimes allowed heliborne incursions into the mountainous areas. One such period began on the 5th and lasted long enough for Marine, Army, and VNAF helicopters to lift a 54-man ARVN patrol from An Diem to a landing zone near the Laotian border. During the operation one escorting U.S. Army UH-1B gunship accidentally struck a tree and was forced to land in a nearby jungle clearing. Two Marine helicopters quickly rescued the crew and weapons of the downed UH-1B, but drew automatic weapons fire in the process. That afternoon 15 Marine helicopters and two armed UH-1Bs returned to the crash site with 64 ARVN troops who established a perimeter around the damaged helicopter after being landed. A maintenance team then landed and repaired the aircraft which subsequently was flown back to Da Nang. Lieutenant Colonel La Voy’s crews undertook to correct several problems which they identified during these initial combat operations. One was the need for machine gun fire to protect the port (left) side of the transport helicopters as they approached contested landing zones. To fill this requirement the squadron’s metalsmiths designed and fabricated a flexible mount for an additional M-60 machine gun. This new mount was designed to allow the machine gun to be swung out a portside window from the cabin. Placed on each of HMM-364’s 24 helicopters, this modification ultimately added a gunner to each crew and enabled the Marines to deliver fire to either or both sides of the aircraft during the critical landing phase of helilifts.[11-8] La Voy personally instituted another change which made the coordination of trooplifts more effective. Prior to HMM-364’s arrival in Vietnam, different Marines had served as loadmasters for each heliborne operation. While this system of rotating the loadmaster assignment had stood the test of numerous operations since its inception in late 1962, La Voy believed that it could be improved. Accordingly, he assigned one pilot and two crew chiefs permanent additional responsibilities as loadmasters. Thereafter, this three-man team was responsible for coordinating loading and unloading activities at pickup points and landing zones for all troop lifts. Thus, through a relatively minor adjustment, the Marines helped insure the closer coordination of their helicopter operations with ARVN ground forces.[11-9]