In November 1973, during one of my breaktimes from Quang Tri battlefield to Saigon, AP photo editor told me the bloody fight was going on at Quang Duc province, near Cambodia border, and asked if I want to spend my "vacations time" at this spot. The answer was of course a "Yes". The next morning, I boarded a military AC-130 Hercule aircraft to be flown into Nhon Co airfield west of Gia Nghia, before being transported north on Highway 14 to the combat units in Bu Prang and Bu Bong.
This is a scan from an archive belonging to a friend of mine. All my pre-1975 photos were confiscated after the fall of South Vietnam in April 1975 (2 years after the Paris Peace Accord went into effect).

***

The US Air Force lost a total of 62 C-130s in Vietnam. of which 52 were assigned to airlift tasks at the time of their loss (the others were gunships, rescue or airlift airplanes on special operations at the time they were lost.) Of those lost during airlift operations, 21 were shot down, 10 were lost to enemy action on the ground.