Loren Bliss was flying my trail, it had been a bad darned day and we were headed back. We were going home and I'd been talking back and forth on the radio with Loren during the flight. I called him again to ask him about something and he didn't answer. So I call him again. Nothing. I lean out the right door and look back and all around for their aircraft and heck, they're gone! Not on my  where they're supposed to be or anywhere to be seen. Rats!

    So we break around and go back looking for them. I'm thinking maybe they'd had an engine failure. Maybe they've been shot down. We backtrack and cross over a little tree line and the Crewchief yells, "There they are".

    The ship's sitting there on the ground with the blades turning. Loren and his gunner are both walking around outside of the helicopter. Apparently they had the aircraft's controls frictioned down and we didn't know what they were doing on the ground but they're poking around like they are looking for something. We can't talk to them because they've got their helmets off. We buzz around them and they finally look up. I get their attention and motion to them to get in the air. Well, they finally get back in their helicopter, take off and rejoin me in trail. I'm really ticked off but I'm curious too!

    On the way back to Dong Tam I don't know whether to be mad as the dickens or to be happy they aren't hurt. I thought I'd lost them!

    We get back and shut down. I walk over to Loren and ask, "Loren? Man! What the heck's going on? You guys scared the crap out of me"! He says, "Oh, when we crossed that treeline we saw a dink graveyard and thought we'd see if we could get another skull". I yelled, "WHAT"!! He went on, "Yeah, I wanted to check out the grave yard man, to see if we could find some more skulls. We always need more skulls!

    Loren had a charmed life! Every time he took off he got shot down. He was a "Magnet Butt" extraordinaire!