I started flying Hummers (Marine Super-DC3 with, IIRC, 1,700 SHP supercharged engines) in Chu Lai in 1968. One night the duty driver awaoke me in my tent and said The Group CO wants you at the line in your flight gear." I groggily went down to the flight line, got my g-suit, torso harness and survival vest and reported to the duty officer, who kind of snickered and told me I wouldn't need anything but my self and flight suit. It was 0230. Just then the Colonel came in and said "You're my copilot for a flare drop mission. Let's go." We walked out to the Hummer, preflighted, climbed aboard and I took the copilot seat. Colonel New did the start, taxi, takeoff, and set it up in a climb; then he said "You've got the aircraft" and went aft and laid down to sleep.
The Gunny and I figured out where we were and what we had to do, and we started talking to grunts on the ground who were engaged in a firefight and needed some of the 1,500 M45 flares we had aboard. We dropped a bunch and had to RTB at dawn. Colonel New came up fresh from a three-hour "nap" and coached me through my first-ever tail-dragger landing. I eventually flew about 500 hours in Hummers in that and two subsequent tours in WestPac.
I would never associate that picture of a Hummer in a near-vertical (apparent) attitude. Hummers don't do vertical, believe me.
TC
