There is a great and interesting book about flying C-123's in Vietnam as part of 606th Special Operations.
"Flying Through Midnight", by Halliday. I think that folks would like the stories in it very much.
An interesting side note to the C-123! in 1965, a notice was placed on all the bulletin boards around the Southeast which read: If you want to fly heavy multi-engine aircraft, report to the Air Host Inn at Atlanta airport at 2PM. Most all us young guys showed up, who were multi-engine qualified, thinking it was that magic airline job! Out walked a little guy, could not have been over 5'5" tall, sporting a little thin mustache, a London Fog overcoat and the first thing out of his mouth was: If you have any reservations about getting shot at every now and then, you better get up and leave as this job will entail some of that!! About 1/2 the room got up and left. This guy was hiring Air America pilots to fly C-123's and C-7's in southeast Asia! (Vietnam). One of the guys who stayed, Chris Walker, was flying C-123's and one day he thought he did not need his flak jacket to sit on and he was shot in the butt by someone and had to return to the states. After a 6 month recovery period, he returned to which ever country he was flying in over there, never would say which one, I always suspected Laos, but just a guess. He later was killed in a DC-7B accident in South America. Sad story, but true, he was married to my first cousin! I still communicate with his daughter every now and then.
