This is Steve with his fresh coat of face paint applied.
 

In this shot, Steve is holding the yellow identification panel that (hopefully) the UH-1B (Huey) gunships will spot as they make their pass up the valley to fix our exact location.  The normal procedure was to communicate with the lead gunship and talk him onto us by the sound of his rotor blades.  As he got close, we would lay the yellow panel out for him to spot as he passed over us.  Once he had a fix on us, he and his wingman would make several low passes over the area to attempt to draw fire from any enemy hiding nearby.  Once satisfied that it was clear, he would direct the CH-46s in to make the pick-up.

Other times, particularly if  the vegetation was thick, we would use use a smoke grenade to make out position.  Ordinarily, this wasn't a really big deal in an area where no enemy contact had been made.  However, in an are with considerable enemy presence it was a bit more of a concern. 

The smoke grenade worked both ways.  It allowed the aircraft to spot us on the ground and that was a good thing.  It also allowed any enemy in the area to pinpoint our location as well and that could be bad.  That wasn't that critical if the team actually got extracted as planned.  However, if something went wrong; a mechanical problem on one of the helos, accurate ground fire at the helos, weather moving in, etc, etc, the helos would depart. 

This would leave you still on the ground.  Only now, any enemy troops in the area knew where you were and, if they were close enough, they could ambush as you moved to a new location to wait for another extract.