On October 11, the newly arrived Marine pilots and aircrews were involved in their first firefight when 8 UH-34Ds drew Viet Cong fire while landing a 112-man Vietnamese unit in the hills west-southwest of Tam Ky. On October 26, the Blue Knights suffered their first combat casualties when a copilot and crew chief were wounded by Viet Cong small arms fire while their helicopter was approaching an enemy contested landing zone southwest of Tam Ky. The pilot was able to return the damaged aircraft to Tam Ky and land safely. In early November, at the height of the monsoon season, Typhoon Iris struck the Vietnamese Coast. The hazardous weather conditions caused flight operations to be suspended except for emergency medical evacuations. When flight operations resumed on November 10, the crews concentrated on rescuing Vietnamese civilians from the inundated coastal plains. Between 1700 and 1900 on their first day of flood relief operations, HMM-365 rescued 144 flood victims. Many of the rescues were accomplished by hoisting individuals from precarious positions in trees or on rooftops while being subjected to sporadic Viet Cong harassing fire. At the end of a 72-hour time period the Blue Knights had successfully rescued over 1,500 flood victims.