-If it is the bird I'm thinking of it was part of the Operation Ranch Hand detachment. They were specially modified spray planes so they didn't do any of the ash & trash stuff that the rest of the C-123 "Flying Dumptrucks" did on a daily basis. One of my Ba Moui Ba drinking buds was a maintainer for Ranch Hand and he gave me a tour. The plane stunk from the defoliant they sprayed. There were so many patches on all of the planes I was amazed that nothing essential to flight had been hit. My helicopter company routinely flew over the U Minh forest during both day and night. I have to believe that our flights and Ranch Hand missions were CAREFULLY deconflicted although my guess is that our Hueys actually flew above the Ranch Hand mission altitude. Flying over the U Minh at night was surreal. There were no villages so no lights but we could smell the cooking fires so we knew that someone was down there. Even so we were rarely shot at: good fire discipline, I guess, since we flew above the "official" small arms danger altitude.
-I've wondered since what the post Viet Nam medical history of the Ranch Hand folks was...