Previous post reminds me -
We flew thru-out the Cambodia Incursion including the setting up of the first firebases Snuffy & Moe. When we first were flying, moving troops & Arty, in the areas around Moe & Snuffy looked like a golf course. A week later it looked like the surface of the moon.
When the 60 days were up, we then had to move all our stuff out and move all the captured equipment out also.
I guess all the mucky mucks had us figured out by then - ALL, and I do mean ALL, the caches were sling-loaded beneath the aircraft. None of it was allowed to be loaded internally. The powers that be had decided that anything that was loaded internally was free game to the aircrews (too true).
We had dropped off a load of wooden rifle crates and had set down and were idling next to the fenced-off area for a quick check. An MP jeep w/trailer pulled out of the compound and turned sharply left on to the dirt road. As he made the turn, a wooden rifle crate fell off the trailer without the MP's noticing. My FE ran over, grabbed the crate & quickly tossed it into the aircraft and then raised the ramp. As he raised the ramp, an MP's head appeared over it and was yelling/gesturing for us to hold-up. The FE advised the pilots to do a quick get-away which we did.
We split a case of brand new SKS's for our trouble that day.