68 What kind of missions did you fly? (United States Air Force Gunships in the Vietnam)
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This article is from the Vietnam FAQ, by Brian Ross, John R. Tegtmeier, Edwin E. Moise, Frank Vaughan, John Tegtmeier with numerous contributions by others.
68 What kind of missions did you fly? (United States Air Force Gunships in the Vietnam)
In Vietnam, we used the AC-130 Gunships primarily for what we called
"armed aerial interdiction" which meant we flew over the Ho Chi Minh
Trail at night and destroyed convoys of trucks that were full of
supplies headed South.
We also were called on to support ground troops, firebases or hamlets
that were in trouble. Plus we performed some other missions that I am
not at liberty to discuss.
The AC-130s were used in Grenada with reasonable success and in Panama
with devastating success. They saw action in Kuwait, and one bird was
lost with all hands to missile fire over the Gulf. They were raising
havoc with the bad guys at the time, and stayed over the target
despite warning from their air controllers to leave because of the
increased threat level.
Following is a first-person account from Dan Ahern, an OV-10 Bronco
Forward Air Controller who witnessed firsthand the loss of that
AC-130.
Callsign was spirit 03.
Missle was likely an SA-8.
They reported possible threat and went back in after pulling off
target.
They were hit just after sunrise. The mission was complete and they
were heading home. We all had a very uneasy feeling and were getting
out of dodge. I looked over my shoulder and saw the fireball.
We reported it to intel, at the time we were not sure it was the
AC-130. As it was we were way past bingo and had no gas to go back and
look. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, the whole airframe exploded.
When we heard they were missing we knew what happened.
We were working Iraqi targets who were pushing south into the town of
Kafji. This happened on the coast, just over the water at the Kuwaiti,
Saudi border.
What a supurb weapons platform, these guys kicked the daylights out of
an Iraqi infantry unit. Sadly, if they had pulled out a few min
earlier they would still be here. In fact I remember AWACS calling
them to get out of there. We folks in slow airplanes do not like the
daylight as you well know.
After the war I debriefed with some guys from the squadron, good
folks. [RA]
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