For those of you who may not be familiar with the McGuire Rig, it was the precursor of the STABO rig. It was named for the man who developed it and I think he was in the Delta Project (CRS). It simply consisted of a loop of 2 inch webbing at the end of a rope and a wrist loop for "safety".To penetrate jungle it was attached to a ruck full of rocks or a sand bag.
We were at the top of a hill and surrounded by some PO'ed folks we had screwed over in the norning. There were no LZ's and our only option was to get out on "strings". The first slick made a serious attempt to cut his way through the canopy with his rotor blades. I never figured if some of our pilots were all balls or totally lacking in sense -- probably both. He finally had to drop the rigs. As he lifted us out I believe one leg became slightly longer than the other. I wasn't sure which was going to give first, my leg or a vine that had caught it. Luckily the vine finally snaped. To try to prevent uncontrolled spinning we were to grasp each other's harness. Being somewhat larger than my "Yards" I managed to grab a pair of legs.
I looked down and saw the bad guys all over the top of the hilll. We had gotten out just in the nick of time. We also took some fire which made the ride even more "exciting". The preferred procedure was to lift a team out and then set them down as soon as it was safe and get them into the choppers. For some reason they took us all of the way back to Kontum. After a few minutes the pain was gone. As they were setting us down I watched my feet touch the ground but felt nothing. I ended up on my backside and it was a while before I could walk unassisted.
It was a very scary and exciting ride but beat the $hit out of the alternative. We were snatched right out of the jaws of the tiger.
