In early March hostile incidents around the Da Nang air base increased dramatically. The incidents usually took the form of sniper fire from the village situated just across the perimeter fence from the living compound. The primary target of the enemy snipers seemed to be the task element’s electrical generators whose high noise level prevented sentries from determining the firing position. Tensions heightened on the night of the 15th when a terrorist hurled a gasoline-filled bottle into the doorway of the staff noncommissioned officers quarters. The crude bomb fortunately failed to ignite. Several days later, however, a Marine in the compound was wounded by sniper fire from beyond the perimeter wire. These latest incidents led Colonel Merchant to request that the security platoon from the 3d Marine Division be redeployed to help protect the base camp and flight line. This request was approved by ComUSMACV and CGFMFPac without delay. On 24 March a 53-man platoon from the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines arrived at Da Nang on a Marine KC-130 and assumed responsibility for security around the Marine compound and flight line. Attached to the MABS-16 sub unit, the infantry platoon freed Colonel Merchant’s aviation personnel to devote full time to their primary mission--providing helicopter support to I Corps. Like its predecessor which had been withdrawn only three months earlier, the new infantry unit would assist with rescue operations in insecure areas and on occasion would be called upon to provide security around TAFDS bladders during helicopter operations in more remote areas. [Illustration: _South Vietnamese troops unload ammunition from a UH-34D while a Marine loadmaster, braced against wheel and wheel strut, exchanges information with the Leatherneck pilot. (USMC Photo A329570)._] The same day that the platoon from the 3d Marine Division arrived at Da Nang, a task element Marine was involved in an act of heroism which later earned him the Bronze Star Medal. While escorting Marine helicopters on a resupply mission about five miles west-northwest of Tam Ky, a U.S. Army UH-1B gunship from Da Nang was hit by Viet Cong fire and crashed in flames. Marine Lance Corporal Walter L. Rupp, a volunteer machine gunner on board the Army gunship, acted rapidly to help secure the area despite having suffered injuries in the crash. Manning an M-60 machine gun, Rupp delivered fire on the approaching enemy while the pilot, copilot, and three other passengers were pulled from the wreckage. All six American personnel, including the injured Marine, were evacuated safely to Da Nang, and then flown to the U.S. Army Field Hospital at Nha Trang for more extensive medical attention. _The Weather Breaks_