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00:00The fixed-wing gunship, call name Spooky.
00:06During the Vietnam War, these benign cargo planes evolved into one of the most bizarre yet most destructive weapon systems of all time.
00:15To meet the needs of unconventional warfare,
00:19crewed AC-47 Dragon Ships were transformed from a defender into a ruthless predator,
00:27capable of annihilating enemy targets along the famed Ho Chi Minh Trail with a devastating display of firepower.
00:40With the escalation of the war, soon emerged Gunship Two, the enormous AC-130 Spectre.
00:47Equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and the most powerful weaponry ever assembled on an aircraft,
00:53these massive gunships stalked the enemy and stripped away their ability to covertly operate at night,
01:00forever altering the nature of aerial attack.
01:17The End
01:19The End
01:20The End
01:21The End
01:23Throughout the early 1960s, South Vietnam was fighting a losing battle against communist insurgents and local guerrilla forces known as the Viet Cong.
01:38To combat local collaboration with guerrillas, the South Vietnamese government relocated citizens in many rural areas to thousands of fortified strategic hamlets.
01:57The government also created hundreds of special forces camps, particularly near the country's borders with North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, in an attempt to stem the rising tide of communist insurgency.
02:19Here, U.S. military advisers often trained and supported Vietnamese troops in counter-guerrilla operations.
02:34Responding to the government's strategy, the Viet Cong launched devastating attacks on strategic hamlets and special forces camps throughout the country.
02:44To strengthen Vietnam's ability to combat such attacks, the U.S. deployed a detachment of air commandos to Vietnam in early 1963 under the code name Farmgate.
03:02The air commandos were sent to train the Vietnamese in close air support and interdiction tactics.
03:09However, as Viet Cong attacks intensified, Farmgate crews were rapidly swept into an active combat role.
03:18Responding to desperate calls from besieged strategic hamlets and outposts, the air commandos regularly drove off assaulting forces with lightly armed North American T-28 Trojans and more heavily armed Douglas B-26 invaders.
03:41The situation improved, but only temporarily, as neither the Vietnamese nor Farmgate possessed an effective night strike capability.
03:54Realizing this, the VC began to strike government installations almost solely at night.
04:04Dismal government losses quickly resumed.
04:11To counter night attacks, the air commandos began experimenting with flare support missions.
04:17Taking off at dusk, Douglas C-47 Gooney Birds and Fairchild C-123 providers roamed the skies over Vietnam responding to calls for help.
04:32Banking into an orbit above an embattled outpost, the crew dispensed a series of parachute flares, exposing assaulting forces to defending troops.
04:57In most cases, the VC would break off their attack.
05:01However, the guerrillas quickly adapted to these tactics, merely waiting for the flare ship to depart before resuming their assault, and often overrunning the vulnerable compound.
05:14Building on the flare concept, the air commandos initiated flare and strike missions.
05:23After a series of flares had been dropped, strike aircraft would lay down a hail of fire, a barrage of rockets, and even canisters of napalm on assaulting forces.
05:37Hundreds of outposts and thousands of lives were saved by these experimental tactics.
05:44But with limited numbers of strike aircraft and flare ships, thousands of potential targets, and the fast pace of VC hit and run tactics, a better solution had to be devised.
05:56A number of concepts were considered, but a strikingly simple concept led designers back to the versatile, rugged World War II vintage Gooney Bird.
06:11If transport crews could illuminate assaulting forces while directing follow-on airstrikes, why not arm transport so that the crew could strike on their own?
06:21Project Tail Chaser was born for the development and testing of Gunship One, the dreaded AC-47.
06:29As the gunship made its way from concept to reality, the situation in Vietnam continued to deteriorate.
06:43In response to U.S. retaliation for the Tonkin Gulf incident, the Viet Cong launched a series of attacks on Allied installations.
06:54Vienhua Air Base, a large Allied installation just north of Saigon, was among the worst hit.
07:01A mortar attack killed four Americans, injured 72, and damaged or destroyed 27 aircraft.
07:09It became painfully clear that the guerrilla attacks could reach anyone, anywhere, and that there were few defensive measures to deter them.
07:18Responding to a frantic search for weapons to combat VC assaults, Project Tail Chaser shifted into high gear.
07:30Guided by the determination and ingenuity of a few key men, such as Captain Ron Terry, considered by many to be the father of the gunship,
07:39two armed Goonibirds were deployed to Vietnam in December of 64.
07:44The planes were equipped with three 7.62 mm Gatling guns, also known as mini guns.
07:51Each gun could fire more than 100 rounds per second.
07:55Firing together, they could put a bullet into every square foot of a football field-sized target in three seconds.
08:02The guns were mounted in a door and two windows on the left side of the aircraft.
08:09A third window contained a manually operated flare launcher.
08:13Eight men manned the AC-47 with two gunners, a flare kicker, and a Vietnamese observer added to the transport's original crew.
08:22To fire on a target, the pilot had to bank the gunship into a circular orbit or pylon turn to the left.
08:31Once the correct amount of bank was established, the miniguns would stay aimed on a relatively fixed point of ground.
08:38From here, an intense and continuous barrage of fire could be laid down on enemy positions.
08:49The pilot actually controlled the firing of the guns.
08:52He acquired the target through the gun sight mounted by his left shoulder.
08:56The gun sight was a World War II fighter gun sight.
09:00It had a lighted ring.
09:02And in the middle of that ring was a dot of light that we called the PIPPER.
09:05If you put that dot of light on your target, the gun line was bore sighted to that sight line.
09:13And the guns would hit what had the dot of light on.
09:17The co-pilot maintained the attitude of the aircraft in that he was watching the instruments, would not let you get out of control, maintained your altitude, and he maintained the airspeed with the throttles.
09:27It was critical that the airplane stay in a perfect orbit in order to be able to hit.
09:31In order to place the fire where we wanted it, we had to maneuver the airplane.
09:41We could rock the wings.
09:43That would move the fire in and out.
09:46And if you hit the rudders, you could move the fire forward and back.
09:51So we used a combination of rudders and aileron to control where we placed the fire and move it around.
09:59Early combat evaluation revealed that the new gunship was not only spectacular at stopping enemy assaults, but also that it instilled a psychological fear out of proportion to its effectiveness.
10:20From the very first mission, no Allied installation was ever overrun while a gunship was overhead.
10:28Intelligence reports indicated devastating Viet Cong losses during raids broken up by AC-47 crews.
10:39The VC were baffled, initially guessing that strikes were coming from intense ground-based attacks, or perhaps from a new type of gun.
10:49The aircraft became legendary, coming to be known as Puff the Magic Dragon, or simply as the dreaded Dragonship.
11:01The name stemmed from the awesome tongues of flame and the whining roar that spewed from the guns as they fired.
11:08The gunships boosted the morale of Allied forces tremendously while completely terrorizing the enemy.
11:16As a result, plans were quickly initiated for a 16-plane AC-47 squadron to provide cover for Allied facilities throughout Vietnam.
11:26As the gunship squadron began to take shape, U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalated rapidly.
11:39President Lyndon Johnson deployed the first large combat units to Vietnam in the spring of 65.
11:48The first Marines landed at Da Nang in March.
11:51By the end of May, 50,000 U.S. troops were stationed throughout the country.
12:00In July, Johnson authorized the deployment of up to 125,000 men.
12:09As the number of ground forces increased, so too did the need for close air support.
12:20In November, a newly created 4th Air Commando squadron was deployed to Tan Son Nhat Air Base
12:26as a part of the hurried U.S. attempt to shore up South Vietnam's crumbling government.
12:31Equipped with 20 fully modified AC-47s, the squadron's primary mission was to defend installations under night attack
12:40and to supplement strike aircraft in the defense of friendly forces in the field.
12:47The Dragon ships were officially assigned the call sign SPOOKY,
12:52a fitting reference to their ominous night missions and camouflage.
12:58By the spring of 66, 26 crews were combat qualified
13:03and SPOOKYs were strategically stationed throughout the country.
13:08The first mission of the evening would take off at sundown
13:11and orbit a point in contact with a command center.
13:16We had five locations for the AC-47 all over South Vietnam.
13:22And we kept an airplane airborne alert all night long and plus a ground alert airplane all night.
13:29And the job was to protect special forces camps that came under attack by the VC.
13:35When the word came in that a camp was under attack, then we would get directed to that camp.
13:41We had the camps all pinpointed on a map and our navigator would tell us how to get there.
13:46In all cases, before the pilot would fire at a target,
13:51he was in contact with a special forces guy on the ground inside the camp or near the camp perimeter.
13:58The guy on the ground would tell the pilots where they wanted him to hit,
14:03where the concentration of the Viet Cong were.
14:07And that's how the feedback came to all the crews.
14:12They knew exactly when the attack stopped because the guy on the ground would keep telling them,
14:19you've got them running, keep firing.
14:26The versatility of the gunship led to various special assignments,
14:29including support for search and rescue, medevac, forward air control, and convoy escort.
14:35A few spookies even performed armed reconnaissance missions against troops and supplies traveling down the Ho Chi Minh Trail,
14:42a mission that foreshadowed the evolution of future gunship operations.
14:50However, throughout 66 and 67, the most critical mission remained defense of Allied installations.
14:57On the last day of 1966, the small 4th Air Commando Squadron successfully defended its 500th fort.
15:06By the end of 67, the number of outposts defended soared to 1,600.
15:12And still, no camp had ever been overrun while Spooky was overhead.
15:21While the defense of outposts, hamlets, and Allied bases became critical in preventing the collapse of South Vietnam,
15:27another mission evolved that was equally challenging and urgent.
15:31Close air support for troops in contact.
15:34Soon after the first Marines arrived in the spring of 65,
15:41President Johnson authorized U.S. troops to be used not only in base defense and training,
15:47but to join with the Vietnamese in taking the fight to the enemy.
15:51Initially, U.S. forces conducted holding actions designed to retain those areas already under Saigon's control.
16:00From these areas, a series of spoiling attacks were launched.
16:04The objective was to search and destroy known Viet Cong strongholds,
16:09rather than to seize and hold new territory.
16:12The operations dramatically reshaped the intensity of the war.
16:17U.S. and Vietnamese troops began to regularly engage Viet Cong elements in vicious firefights.
16:24As a result, Spooky crews were increasingly called upon to come to the aid of troops in contact,
16:31many of whom had become desperate after being pinned down by enemy fire.
16:36When we were supporting troops in contact, the young Army soldiers were very nervous.
16:44If they were new to the experience and the fire was getting very heavy from the Viet Cong,
16:53they sometimes would call for us to fire on their position,
16:57because they felt they were in imminent danger of being overrun.
17:02When I first came into country, I had an older pilot tell me that this was going to happen.
17:09And when it did, ask them how many casualties they'd taken.
17:14And if they hadn't taken any casualties, we didn't do that.
17:19He said, you tell them that when they start taking casualties, you'll put the fire any place they want it.
17:26Identifying friendly positions was the most difficult and critical aspect of close air support.
17:32Firing around the perimeter of a fort or hamlet, even at night, was relatively simple.
17:38Installations were normally set in large clearings and had distinctive shapes.
17:43Anything outside of the perimeter was generally considered hostile.
17:48Crews supporting troops in the field faced far worse conditions.
17:52Friendly forces were often concealed by dense jungle foliage and rugged terrain.
17:57Others were engaged in violent street battles.
18:04Weather and darkness further complicated missions.
18:07And to make matters worse, crews had to avoid using flares for fear of exposing friendly positions to enemy troops.
18:15Well, when we arrived over some troops that were just out in the jungle,
18:20they'd give us as much about the geographic facts on the area as they could.
18:24They were close to a river or a mountain or something like that to help us orient ourselves to their position.
18:32Quite often they used a strobe light.
18:35And if they used a strobe light, then we could see the strobe and they could tell us how they were arranged around that strobe light so we could fire.
18:45Unfortunately, by that time the North Vietnamese had learned that and had captured strobe lights.
18:54And they sometimes used the strobe lights to confuse us.
18:58That was a problem that we had to be very concerned about because it could lead you to putting fire on friendly troops.
19:06While support for troops in contact became a vital mission, Spooky's primary role remained the defense of static bases, forts and villages that were being hit by increasingly deadly VC assaults.
19:23In the fall of 1967, the US activated a second gunship squadron and increased the Dragonship fleet from 22 to 33 aircraft.
19:36Ultimately, commanders would have liked to have had a gunship on airborne alert over every base in South Vietnam through the critical night hours.
19:45By the start of 1968, there was an air of optimism in South Vietnam.
19:58US and Vietnamese officials felt that vastly reinforced air, ground and naval forces had turned the tide against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese.
20:10On January 30th, these hopes were shattered when communist forces launched their Tet Offensive.
20:18Heavy fighting reached Saigon.
20:24The old Vietnamese capital of Hue was overrun and virtually destroyed.
20:3136 of 45 provincial capitals and 50 hamlets were attacked.
20:39The offensive ultimately ended in a large-scale military defeat for the Viet Cong.
20:44But it was clear that the war was far from over.
20:50Spooky crews were stretched to the limit as they struggled to support Allied forces throughout the country.
20:57By July, the number of outposts successfully defended, which came to be known as the Spooky Count, rose to more than 2,300.
21:12However, this would be the peak year for US Spooky operations.
21:17Shortly after his inauguration in January, President Richard Nixon initiated a plan for the Vietnamization of the war.
21:24Under the plan, US forces would gradually withdraw, while South Vietnamese forces would be strengthened.
21:31By 1969, both Spooky squadrons were deactivated and all of the AC-47s were turned over to the Vietnamese and Royal Laotian Air Forces.
21:43Despite the shift in policy, US gunship operations in Southeast Asia continued to thrive and evolve.
21:52In fact, an entirely new class of gunship had already emerged and was striking at the very lifeline of North Vietnam's war on the south.
22:01The infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail.
22:15As early as 1964, the Ho Chi Minh Trail had become a critical supply line for Communist forces operating in South Vietnam.
22:23The trail was actually a vast network of old footpaths that ran some 1,700 miles from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to the south.
22:35As the war escalated, North Vietnam developed the trail into a complex road network that could handle convoys of large trucks.
22:45The network became much more advanced than initially expected.
22:53By 1967, there were hundreds of supply depots, large truck parks for maintenance and repair, medical facilities, and even rest and relaxation areas to boost troop morale during the long, arduous journey southward.
23:10During the spring of 1965, the US began launching airstrikes against a section of the trail in southern Laos.
23:24The strikes generally coincided with the dry season, roughly from mid-October to mid-April.
23:31Throughout the rest of the year, the roads in Laos became nearly impassable and flying conditions extremely hazardous,
23:39due to heavy rains.
23:41Most strikes were carried out by Air Force and Navy jets, which cut roadways and struck enemy positions with bombs, rockets, and strafing runs.
23:53By mid-year, more than 1,000 sorties per month were being flown against the trail.
24:05Each year, the interdiction campaign expanded.
24:08However, a number of factors limited their overall effectiveness.
24:14North Vietnamese supply convoys began operating on the trail almost solely at night, making it difficult to locate and strike enemy targets.
24:25In addition, the high speed and heavy fuel consumption of jets afforded pilots little time to discover targets in the rough jungle terrain.
24:41And ironically, heavy bombing along key routes pulverized the landscape, actually making road development and repair easier for the enemy in many areas.
24:52What the interdiction campaign needed was an aircraft that could loiter over infiltration routes for hours,
24:59that could acquire targets under dense jungle foliage, even at night, and that could accurately deliver tremendous firepower on relatively small moving targets.
25:10Such an aircraft would be found in Gunship Two, the AC-130 Spectre.
25:18From the inception of Project Tail Chaser, the U.S. had been searching for a more effective follow-on aircraft to the AC-47.
25:28By 1967, the Air Force had narrowed down the replacement to either the 1950s vintage Fairchild C-119 flying boxcar or the new Lockheed C-130 Hercules.
25:40Both aircraft were ultimately selected, but it was the massive C-130 with vastly superior payload capacity and performance that was modified to become Gunship Two.
25:53From the beginning, Major Ron Terry and others who were involved in the development of Spooky intended to greatly increase the capability of this second generation gunship.
26:05However, no one anticipated that it would become the heavily armed, highly sophisticated weapon system that it did.
26:15In January of 1967, conversion of the first C-130 was initiated under Project Gunboat.
26:22The prototype was armed with four miniguns, one more than the Spooky, and four 20mm Vulcan cannons.
26:30The cannons were a potent addition to gunship firepower.
26:35Each Vulcan could fire up to 2,500 rounds of high-explosive incendiary shells per minute.
26:41A variety of equipment was also installed to improve the gunship's ability to acquire and strike targets at night.
26:56Included were a night observation device, or starlight scope, an early infrared sensor that translated heat emissions into a visible picture.
27:06A powerful 20-kilowatt searchlight that could illuminate vast target areas.
27:13And a crude computerized fire control system that integrated sensor inputs to provide target position and aircraft attitude for the pilot.
27:24By June of 1967, the AC-130 had entered flight trials where it was placed through extensive tests to ensure the accuracy of its potent weapon system.
27:36Fire from the new 20mm cannons was devastatingly accurate, striking a floating target grid 29 times in 30 passes.
27:53While the Air Force was seeking a gunship to carry on Spooky's role as a defender, everyone involved quickly realized the Spectre's vast offensive potential.
28:05The new sensors allowed crews to locate and lock onto target trucks from a phenomenal distance, even in darkness.
28:14A few bursts from the powerful Vulcans demolished the trucks in a matter of seconds.
28:39Impressed by the dramatic test results, the Air Force quickly deployed a Prototype 130 to Vietnam in the fall of 1967.
28:55The Spectre did continue the tradition of Spooky initially, flying its first mission in support of a firebase under assault.
29:05Within a month, however, the crew was released from ground support for its first armed reconnaissance mission in Laos, a truck hunting mission.
29:14Shortly after arriving over a portion of the trail, a sensor operator spotted six trucks heading south.
29:21After receiving clearance to fire, the pilot banked into an attack orbit and unleashed a barrage of 20mm fire on the hapless convoy.
29:30Within minutes, all six trucks were burning.
29:49The gunship's debut was both spectacular and chilling.
29:58The Air Force wasted little time in developing additional AC-130s.
30:04Following the communist Tet Offensive in 1968, there was a renewed sense of urgency about interdiction.
30:14Commanders and airmen alike recognized that such a massive assault could never have materialized if the flow of men and supplies from the north had been choked off.
30:25Each bullet that could be stopped on the trail represented one less possible fatality in the field.
30:31In October, four Spectres were deployed to Ubon, Thailand, with a newly created 16th Special Operations Squadron.
30:45By the end of the year, the squadron was regularly patrolling the skies over Laos, ferreting out and destroying enemy trucks as they headed down the trail.
31:02Spectre operations required a tremendous amount of technical know-how and teamwork.
31:2311 crew members performed very specific functions, from flying the plane, to operating a sensor, to loading a gun.
31:41Each man's performance determined the success or failure, and ultimately even the safety or peril of the entire crew.
31:54Sensor operators led the pilot to a target.
31:57The fire control system integrated sensor information with the relative speed and position of the gunship, allowing the pilot to place the aircraft into an attack orbit.
32:07As a pilot, I couldn't see anything. I had no navigation instruments to operate with.
32:16We'd go to the sector, and the sensor operators would search and find the targets.
32:22Once they found the target, the navigator would validate it with airborne man-controlled aircraft,
32:28because we did have friendly troops on the ground in Laos from Special Operations Special Forces and different other organizations.
32:38The pilot would turn and look out through a reflector gun sight.
32:43In there, there were two symbols, a fixed symbol of light and one that moved.
32:49The fixed symbol represented where the guns were looking.
32:54The movable symbol represented where the sensors were looking.
32:57The trick was to get the movable symbol superimposed within the certain limits over the fixed symbol.
33:06And once you got this done, you'd solve part of the problem.
33:11The rest of the problem was to maintain a 30-degree bank and also the altitude and the airspeed.
33:20Any variation would cause the bullet to miss the target.
33:24Once you got that done, you told the engineer who was standing behind you and calling out your bank because you couldn't see that.
33:31He would arm the guns, the gunners would arm them, and I would mash a button on the yoke.
33:39And if all these other parameters had been met, bullets would go out and they would hit the target.
33:45We could hit a truck from two and a half miles away and do it consistently.
33:50And we killed a lot of trucks. We killed a lot of people, which was our job.
33:54That's the name of the game in war, destroy the other guy or destroy his equipment.
33:57We did a good job of doing that.
34:00And that player is big enough to blow all the trucks on the curve.
34:03In fact, it's blocking my truck now.
34:05Throughout 1969, the 16th Air Commando Squadron yielded phenomenal results on the trail.
34:17In January, still equipped with only four aircraft, Spector crews accounted for 28% of all truck kills.
34:27In April, the squadron flew less than 4% of interdiction sorties, but accounted for more than 44% of the trucks destroyed or damaged.
34:42By the end of the year, three more Spectors were deployed to expand the hunt.
34:47That is a large explosion.
34:50Man, I'm telling you.
34:51Despite early success, conditions over the trail were becoming increasingly hostile.
35:02In 1968, President Johnson halted U.S. bombing operations over North Vietnam, allowing Communist forces time to regroup.
35:10From November of 68 through May of 70, North Vietnamese anti-aircraft defenses on the trail increased by more than 400%.
35:23More serious threats, such as telephone pole-sized SA-2 surface-to-air missiles, began to appear in increasing numbers.
35:39In May of 69, the inevitable finally happened, when two Spectors were struck by enemy anti-aircraft fire.
35:46The first landed safely, but one crewman was killed.
35:53The second burst into flames as it landed, killing two more crew members.
35:58By the summer of 1970, all remaining Spectors were withdrawn from combat for refurbishing.
36:04What emerged was a phenomenal weapon system that made initial Spectors look primitive in comparison.
36:19The surprise package AC-130.
36:34The most significant modification to the surprise package was the addition of two 40mm Bofors cannons,
36:48which replaced the aft pair of 20mm guns.
36:51New electronics included a low-light television system, a side-looking, beacon-tracking radar to help identify friendly positions,
37:06a laser designator and rangefinder, and a new digital fire control computer.
37:12Returning to Thailand in December of 1970, surprise package AC-130s immediately resumed interdiction operations over the trail.
37:26Within a month, crews had shattered all previous interdiction records, destroying as many as 43 trucks in a single mission.
37:45The 40mm cannons dramatically increased the lethal power of the 130s, while allowing for even greater standoff attack altitudes.
37:53However, it is improved sensing equipment that ultimately had the biggest impact on interdiction operations.
38:05The sensor operator was actually the highest of the gunship.
38:08We had a forward-looking infrared sensor, a flare.
38:11Everything gives off IR energy, and it comes up on your picture as different shades of gray, depending on the amount of heat.
38:18The IR would acquire the target. He would have a big picture.
38:21He could see up in front of the nose of the aircraft.
38:25And then the TV would slave to the IR, acquire the target, and then he would say he had the target.
38:31And that would be the sensor of choice to fire off of, because it was more stable.
38:37We also have what we call Black Crow, and he was also the electronic warfare officer.
38:42The trucks over in Southeast Asia, the ignition systems weren't shielded.
38:49So this sensor was designed to pick up the firing of the spark plugs.
38:53And it would appear on a scope, and he would actually acquire the truck driving down the trail, the engine running.
38:59And then the IR would pick it up next, and then the TV, and then we would roll in and fire on the target.
39:03The first radars were kind of washed out, fuzzy pictures.
39:11Then the later version gave you a nice, sharp picture.
39:15I mean, you could see trucks. You could see a guy running down the road.
39:19I mean, you could see his feet, the separation of his legs.
39:21We're at altitude, and we could see all this in darkness.
39:28There he is.
39:30Lower, lower.
39:32Holy shit.
39:34Beautiful.
39:36Come on, brother, go.
39:40The battle for the trail continued to escalate.
39:46North Vietnamese determination was bolstered by the steady and unrestricted flow of traffic.
39:51Trucks and supplies from the Soviet Union and China.
39:59From November of 1970 through June of 71, AC-130 crews damaged or destroyed more than 13,800 trucks.
40:094,000 in March alone.
40:11Frustrated by the success of interdiction efforts, the Communists often took drastic measures to ensure the continual flow of men and supplies.
40:25Okay, we're, oh, direct head on the same truck.
40:30A lot of times, when you were on the trail working, and the truck drivers would hear the drone of the C-130, they would stop the truck, and they would abandon the truck, and you could actually see them running away from their trucks.
40:42And we would finish the truck off. So to stop that, they started chaining them to the steering column of the truck. And many of them was found, you know, burned to death, dead inside their vehicles along the Ho Chi Minh trail.
40:55As the flow of men and supplies built toward a massive North Vietnamese offensive in 1972, Spectre crews uncovered and struck increasingly impressive targets.
41:15Truck convoys carrying massive amounts of ammunition and fuel, large truck parks containing dozens of vehicles, ferries, sampans, and other river traffic bearing tons of supplies.
41:32Yeah, that was, I could see that. Is that the boat? Roger, Roger, and you should be able to see the buildings and stuff like that, just as the forward makes the bend in the river there.
41:46While interdiction of enemy supply lines remained the focus of Spectre missions, the air crews never lost sight of the gunship's original role, defending friendly forces on the ground.
41:57When we were on the trail, or if we were after trucks or tanks, and a fire base or the ground forces needed our support, we'd be immediately broke off and sent to them in support.
42:11They had the priority for the airplane. Their lives were more important than a truck or a vehicle or something coming down the Ho Chi Minh trail.
42:18By the end of 1971, North Vietnamese defense of the trail threatened Spectre crews at every turn.
42:37Heavy anti-aircraft guns and missile emplacements lined key routes.
42:41With years of combat experience, enemy gunners had developed sophisticated and deadly tactics.
42:54Concerned about the increased threat, the U.S. searched for a new weapon to provide 130 crews with even greater standoff capability.
43:02In February of 1972, they found the perfect match.
43:09A heavy caliber gun that had been in use by American forces since the Second World War.
43:15The 105mm Howitzer.
43:17Replacing one of the 40mm cannons, these powerful guns could accurately deliver a 44-pound shell more than 12,000 meters, demolishing virtually any target in a single shot.
43:35While the increased standoff range did improve crew safety, anti-aircraft fire remained a formidable threat.
43:49Defense against enemy fire largely came down to the illuminator operator.
43:53His job, in addition to dispensing flares, was to lie on the Spectre's half-opened cargo ramp, scanning the terrain for anti-aircraft fire and missile launches.
44:06When the aircraft was threatened, the I.O. immediately called for violent evasive maneuvers or other countermeasures.
44:13In most cases, the gunship escaped.
44:18Sometimes, disaster was unavoidable.
44:26One night in 1972, we've been fragged into the Oshawa Valley.
44:31We just rolled into a firing orbit and the 37mm fired off about six rounds right off of our 5 o'clock position.
44:37And then mixed in with that anti-aircraft fire, here come a surface-to-air missile right straight for us.
44:46The missile kept locked onto us and coming.
44:48We fired a flare, it missed the flare, it kept coming right on.
44:51And the missile came right up past the tail, came right in, exploded right in the number two engine.
44:57And the plane violently shook.
44:59And all of a sudden, within about 10 seconds, there was a whirl of fire running down the side of the aircraft, past the tail, and probably at least 100 foot, 200 feet back into the air.
45:11And it was just a big, roaring furnace.
45:14I pulled back off of the ramp, and I instinctively reached and unhooked my harness that had me attached to the plane.
45:20I turned and I reached back and got my chute.
45:23And about that time, the plane was starting to roll over and down.
45:27And I said, I've got to get out of the airplane.
45:30And I got right on the edge of the ramp and started pushing over with all of my might.
45:36I had my parachute in my hand, and all of a sudden, a loud explosion took place in the back of the airplane.
45:41And it shot me out through the back of the airplane, and all of a sudden, everything kind of went black.
45:46I was falling through the sky, and the plane was away from me.
45:50And when my chute opened, it was just the breeze falling everywhere, all around me.
45:55The plane was still headed towards the ground underneath me, and I seen it hit the ground and just scatter across, basically across the jungle floor.
46:04In all, six AC-130s were downed throughout the war, killing 52 airmen.
46:10While the Spectre had evolved into a phenomenal interdiction weapon, there was a problem.
46:19By 1967, ground commanders throughout Vietnam were desperate for more gunships.
46:27Allied offensives and widespread communist assaults were creating the need for more and better close air support.
46:35But new AC-130s were being diverted out of country for missions against the trail.
46:46The problem was finally addressed in the spring of 1969, with the arrival of the 71st Special Operations Squadron and gunship 3, the AC-119 Shadow.
46:57Converted from the lumbering old C-119 Flying Boxcar, the Shadow was designed for the critical close air support role, and was the true follow-on to Spooky.
47:11By December, the U.S. had transferred all of its Spookys to the Vietnamese and Royal Laotian Air Forces, and the Shadow became the sole U.S. gunship based in Vietnam.
47:24Although U.S. involvement in the war had begun to diminish under President Nixon's plan for Vietnamization, fierce fighting continued to rage throughout the country.
47:40Outposts, hamlets, bases, and cities were repeatedly assaulted.
47:46Allied forces regularly engaged the Viet Cong, and even larger and more heavily armed North Vietnamese battalions in bloody battles.
47:54Timely, accurate, and overwhelming close air support remained the most effective defense against communist assaults.
48:00A mission for which the Shadow was well prepared.
48:05Equipped with four miniguns, one more than Spooky, a night observation site, a semi-automatic flare launcher, and a 20-kilowatt illuminator, Shadow crews could pinpoint enemy forces and deliver a lethal barrage of fire, even at night.
48:21A fire control system further enhanced weapon accuracy, and even included a safety display to prevent crews from firing on friendly positions.
48:35A second version of the Shadow, the AC-119 Stinger, was also deployed to Vietnam in late 1969.
48:48Armed with four miniguns, two 20-millimeter cannons, a forward-looking infrared sensor, and various advanced radar systems, Stinger crews bolstered Spectre interdiction operations throughout Southeast Asia.
49:01However, because the 119s were somewhat underpowered, hard to maneuver, and vulnerable to enemy fire, their principal and most effective mission remained the mission that had started it all, defense of friendly forces on the ground.
49:21The gunship was a very good assignment, because you were doing something that was saving lives.
49:27Quite often we would go out, troops in contact.
49:31These are, you know, 18, 20-year-old army sergeants, out in the jungle.
49:38The jungle itself was hostile, even if there weren't any Viet Congarounds.
49:42And when we would arrive, they'd be talking in a whisper that was almost impossible to hear.
49:48And after we'd been flying over, cover over them for 20 minutes or a half an hour, they'd be talking in a normal voice.
49:58And you could tell that they were going to get some sleep that night that they wouldn't have got if you hadn't been there, even if we didn't have any enemy to fire at them.
50:10Throughout the Vietnam War, the gunship evolved from a crude defensive weapon into one of the most deadly and sophisticated airborne predators of all time.
50:22From repelling enemy assaults on forts and villages, to destroying supplies as they moved down the trail.
50:29The relatively small and unusual gunship force emerged as a premier defender of Allied forces, and indeed, of South Vietnam as a whole.
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