VN era AC-119K Stinger Gunship Flight Suit with nice patches

[blademan]

Found this nice 1968 AC-119K Stinger gunship flight ship named to a colonel that was a navigator on one of 26 of these gunships. The contract year on this suit is 1968. If anyone has any info on this officer, please let me know.

 

I believe he passed away in the late 1970's.

 

I have a friend who was a gunner on one of these gunships and need to ask him if he knew this officer.

 

Thanks

[blademan]

stinger patch

[USARV72]

Real nice! Any idea where he lived? Check the obits. Saw them in action, at night looked like someone dumping a grill full of hot coals out, them the tearing noise of the guns firing.

[River Patrol]

Very nice K2B!

[Patchcollector]

Great suit with some direct embroidery and what looks like a theatre made flag!

 

Here from my collection is a direct embroidered piece cut from a party suit that I posted on the Forum some years back.

[blademan]

Real nice! Any idea where he lived? Check the obits. Saw them in action, at night looked like someone dumping a grill full of hot coals out, them the tearing noise of the guns firing.

I believe this vet retired around Vandenburg AFB on the CA coast.

 

That must have been an awesome sight to see those guns a blazing.

 

A friend of mine was a gunner on one of these gunships. He has told me many stories of his close calls. The NVA would set up an ambush at night with a decoy truck with lights on with their AA guns converging on one point at a predetermined altitude. Took out a lot of our guys like this.

 

My buddies best friend got caught in one of these ambushes. They lost an engine and could not maintain altitude. They tossed all the guns, ammo, and anything else that was not bolted down. They got the ship back but got court marshaled for destroying government equipment. I think charge were dropped. That is crazy!

 

Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk

 

 

[blademan]

Patchcollector, very nice patch. Cant imagine there are many of these around with only 26 ships built.

 

Any idea of value on this sort of thing?

 

Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk

 

 

[Patchcollector]

Patchcollector, very nice patch. Cant imagine there are many of these around with only 26 ships built.

 

Any idea of value on this sort of thing?

 

Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk

 

Thanks Blademan.Assigning a monetary value would be tough for me,as a lot of the party suit embroidery was custom ordered and unique so finding a comparison item would be almost impossible.I got this years ago and can't even remember what I paid for it but I do remember it wasn't cheap.