Slicks; go anywhere, do anything, the famous Huey

A Slick is a standard Iroquois helicopter. The troop and supplies carrying version. It was called that because it had smooth sides. No guns attached outside. It still had the GPMG M60 on a bungy cord but that was mounted inside. Most of the choppers that the average Digger had something to do with was a Slick. The term is an American one that we picked up.

Vietnam. 1965-07-14. Troops of 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), take up defensive positions after leaving United States Iroquois helicopters that carried them into Viet Cong infested country during operations north of Saigon. The helicopters air-lifted the Australians into action from the Bien Hoa air base.
	Bien Hoa province, South Vietnam, 1968-06. A resupply helicopter is being unloaded at fire support base (FSB) Concord in northern Bien Hoa province shortly after the base had been set up by 4RAR/NZ (ANZAC) (the Anzac battalion comprising 4th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment and a component from the 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment).

With a Huey you can always get out in a hurry.

This photo could be either of 2 things;
- the chopper cannot get right down so the grunt uses the skid like a step to reduce the height he has to jump from OR. . .
- he might be "riding the skids", a term the Yanks used for the practice of having your feet on the chopper's skid bar when you went into a "Hot LZ" (a landing zone that was under enemy fire). "Riding the skids" reduced by a few fractions of a second the time you were exposed to enemy fire.