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AC-130 Gunship


Saskatoon Light Infantry
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When I was active duty Army I watched one of these do a gunny traget run when I was on the ground at night once. It looked like the hand of God was throwing down fire. Vending out hate and discontenent like a mother. Sure would hate to be on the business end of one of those babies!

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I used to have a 105mm casing and some of the 40mm casings from one of these that came out to Utah to do some target practice at the range. The loaders on the plane would give it out by the armfuls if you went out to the building they were using. We also drove out to where the plane was parked on one of the hot pads and take a look inside.

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In RVN I was privileged (?) to have the help of all types of AC's -- AC-47, AC-119, AC-130 and even an AC-123 (?! I was told that only two of these

existed, in the RVNAF). On one particulary fascinating night, we had one type or another on station continuously and the crews were very pleased to have a target-rich environment. Kind of like the Blue Angels, they were the stars of the Thuong Duc Air Show Late Late Show.

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In the Easter Offensive of 1972, when we were controlling resupply flights into An Loc, north of Saigon, they were constrained by the size and orientation of the drop zone (which was a soccer field). The resupply C-130s were taking a real beating because the bad guys figured out fairly quickly that they had to come in on one of two flight paths to drop into the field.

 

Somebody with a little brainpower then slipped a Spectre into the rotation, so when the bad guys opened up with 37mm, they took a 105 round in the face, with some 20mm and 40mm for their friends and neighbors. The bad guys weren't so quick to start shooting after that.

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"Look Mohammed! Has Allah sent a star to guide us?!"

 

"Errr...no baby. It's Puff the Magic Dragon...and he's a-comin' to getcha!"

 

What a weapon...and what a rugged airframe to be able to absorb the recoil from those 105s!!

 

Sabrejet :packin heat:

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Gotta like SPOOKY

 

A buddy of mine was a gunner on on in Viet Nam.He still talks about cleaning the brass out of the AC with a scoop shovel.

 

RD

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My son was in Panama during Just Cause. Just outside the main gate to Howard AFB the PDF had a Police Station(spy Station) First thing to start Just Cause an AC-130 put a 105 through the roof. When it landed to reload he grabbed some expended rounds for himself. He climbed his radar tower on top of a hill and observed the AC-130 making several passes and he stated it was quite a sight. Glad not to be on the recieveing end. I still think of it as Puff(John Wayne the the Green Berets) Robert

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