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Of the 53 aircraft converted to AC-47 configuration, 41 served in Vietnam and 19 were lost to all causes, 12 in combat. [4] Combat reports indicate that no village or hamlet under Spooky protection was ever lost, and a plethora of reports from civilians and military personnel were made about AC-47s coming to the rescue and saving their lives.
With the addition of the two types, the 14 SOW for a time in 1968 was flying eight different aircraft from ten different bases in South Vietnam. The 14 SOW was inactivated in 1971. Limited numbers continued to be operated out of Thailand as late as the fall of 1972, but the AC-119 was phased out shortly after from the US Air Force.
Later, during the Vietnam era, the 14th Air Commando Squadron, flew Douglas AC-47 Spooky gunships between 1967 and 1968. The 14th flew out of Nha Trang Air Base , Phan Rang Air Base , Bien Hoa Air Base , and Binh Thuy Air Base , providing fire support in defense of US air bases, special forces camps, Republic of Vietnam Army outposts, and South ...
One of the first seven AC-130A aircraft deployed to Vietnam was AF serial no. 53–3129, named First Lady in November 1970. This aircraft was a conversion of the first production C-130. On 25 March 1971, it took an anti-aircraft artillery hit in the belly just aft of the nose gear wheel well over the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. The 37 mm shell ...
In 1964, during the Vietnam War, [2] the popular Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport was successfully modified into a gunship by the United States Air Force with three side-firing Miniguns for circling attacks. At the time the aircraft was known as a "Dragonship", "Puff, the Magic Dragon" or "Spooky" (officially designated FC-47, later corrected to ...
South Vietnam lost 1,018 aircraft and helicopters from January 1964 to September 1973. [6] 877 Republic of Vietnam aircraft were captured at war's end (1975) [7] Of the 2,750 [8] aircraft and helicopters received by South Vietnam, only about 308 survived (240 flew to Thailand or US warships [9] and 68 returned to the United States [10]).
Suddenly, Spooky 71 was jarred by a tremendous explosion. A North Vietnamese Army's 82 mm mortar shell hit the right wing and exploded inside the structure, raking the fuselage with flying shrapnel. Everyone in the back of Spooky 71 was wounded, including Levitow, who was hit by shrapnel and experienced a concussion that he was quoted as saying ...
Douglas AC-47 Spooky: Ground-attack aircraft and close air support gunship: Douglas Aircraft Company: Developed from the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, it itself developed from the acclaimed Douglas DC-3. Succeeded by the Fairchild AC-119 & the Lockheed AC-130. [8] First deployed over Vietnam in 1964. [9] 1964 [10] 1965 53 Bell AH-1 Cobra: Attack ...