Puff the Magic Dragon: The AC-47 "Spooky" Gunship

the Vietnam War was still in its early years the war of attrition escalated on both sides the North Vietnamese Army was emboldened by victories earlier that year and we're working with guerrilla fighters of the dreaded Vietcong to move south and infiltrate u.s. and South Vietnamese strongholds it was the night of December 23rd and us Allied forces in the army of the Republic of Vietnam where the ARVN were stationed at the Trani end outpost in the Mekong River Delta the troops sensed a stealth attack from the Vietcong was imminent but were powerless to stop it the local guerrilla army was closing in a rvn officials had radioed a nearby US Air Force Base requesting aerial assistance the situation was beyond tense the guerrillas were accustomed to this procedure and knew they had to simply retreat back into the jungles and fields and hide and wait for the planes to exhaust the munitions eventually the US planes would assume the enemy had either been wiped out or withdrawn and would themselves retreat from the area the guerrillas would then Rhea merged in the shadows and re-engaged their attack for the Vietcong though that night was different huge streaks of bright red Unleashed from the sky like glowing thrashing tongues they rained down in heavy electric blankets in all directions a new and powerful weapon had introduced itself that night the douglas ac-47 the glowing red of its ammunition gave the craft a nickname that quickly spread among the ARVN the dragon ship the dragon ship surprisingly the massive fury of red ammunition that have so successfully dampened the Vietcong that night was nothing more than a modified World War 2 era cargo plane it was the innovation that went into its modifications and streamlined the process for wartime production that proved to be the key to the H c-47s enduring success in use since 1941 US Air Force engineers reason that the c-47 could be reimagined there's a close air support solution to provide quick and heavy artillery backup to Allied forces on the ground in this sense the ac-47 became the first of its kind aside fire in ground control gunship of the future pilot be easily toggle to fire all three mini guns at once or control them independently this allowed for greater offensive flexibility in the air the gunship lateral fire and gunships were not a new concept but they had been resistant for many years it took a military insider and an engineer from Bell AeroSystems to finally achieve the vision required for the gunship to help him achieve his vision the military man was first lieutenant Gilmore C MacDonald the engineer was Ralph flex Minh MacDonald have long espoused the idea of a side fire and ground support aircraft and flex Minh immediately knew he could do it in April of 1963 MacDonald and flex Minh brought on Air Force captain john c Simons to aid with their endeavor after some quibbles within the Air Force the project finally met a receptive audience project tail chaser the Air Force approved project tail chaser albeit unofficially and overseen by captain Simons it then took captain Ron Terry a fighter pilot who had already seen action in Vietnam himself to come aboard and give the project real impetus Terry used his experience in the field to address a specific area of need he noted that only US flare ships such as c-123 and c-47s which circled overhead and dropped illuminated flares aided and warding off stealth attacks Terry and Simon's worked together with the limited equipment on loan to project tail chaser they modified a twin-engine c-130 one trainer and discovered that by maneuvering the plane instead he rounded turns they could keep the side mounted guns fixed on a ground target with relative ease Terry got them approval for live-fire test at Eglin Air Force Base however since the program was not officially funded by the Air Force he had to put in the expenses for additional hardware on his own credit card ensuing tests both at Eglin in Florida and target Rangers in the Gulf of Mexico were immensely successful and turned analysts and observers into converse they were then given a c-47 skytrain as the next test aircraft the c-47 proved to be the perfect model for Simon's and Terry's modifications there were durable slow maneuvering claims meaning that could hover over a small area for long periods of time its history as a cargo plane meant there was plenty of Express space to carry additional a munitions and flares additionally every fifth round fired was loaded with a distinctive red tracer round a glowing bullet that when the crafts three guns were firing at high speed created the effect of a bright red rain it was an exceptional innovation a special kind of flare that helped illuminate the enemy while also blanketing them in heavy fire the dragonflies Terry and his team now operating under the title project gunship arrived at ton Sun not based in South Vietnam on December 2nd 1964 they brought with them the plans and necessary equipment to modify to c-47s however the crew immediately faced unexpected opposition from the air force brass stationed at the base who told them they were not to unpack or speak to anyone and that they along with their equipment and plans would be dispatched back to the US immediately apparently a four-star general had filed an official complaint after seeing Terry's plans to modify c-47s already on the ground in Vietnam the reason the general believed the project didn't fit with the air force's prevailing operational philosophy however vice chief of staff John P McConnell intervened before Terry and his team were booted out of Vietnam telling the generals that quote we cannot overlook or deny any weapon which will enhance our capability in this area of operation the first modified c-47 test craft was ready by December 11th the second by December 15th they were dubbed the ac-47 a c4 attack cargo designation and given the radio call sign puffs short for Puff the Magic Dragon the appearance of one of those a c-47s at Trani and on that night of december 23rd represented the first significant victory for the gunship in a combat situation the ac-47 was a huge success all of its combat engagement in the final weeks of December 1964 were successful so much so that an urgent request for a full squadron of a c-47s was made by the Air Force the Air Force request sighted the planes immense psychological importance to ground troops when compared with other aircraft strike efforts to date Spooky's success by November of 1965 20a c-47s had been manufactured and shipped to Vietnam an AC squadron was created operating with the fourth Air Commando squadron and deployed to Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base the planes were then given another official callsign by Air Force pilots spooky likely due to its intimidating spectral presence and its appearances primarily at night by the end of 1965 spooky gunships had been used in 277 combat missions fired 137,000 136 rounds and helped keep American forces engaged on the ground at a time when the war was turning in the north vietnamese is favored their operations done expanded into Thailand and Laos in 1966 the squadron moved their active headquarters to knocked wrong Air Force Base further to the north for a second group of a c-47s the third Air Commando squadron was also established both squadrons were re-designated as Special Operations squadrons in August 1968 and continued to be used to extraordinary success in night base defense missions Captain Terry always the innovator have already moved on to designing the next iteration with the spooky gunship by this time having observed the movement to the Vietcong and Laos and North Vietnam on the Ho Chi Minh Trail Terry had concluded that the Air Force would need an even more advanced modified gunship this one would need night vision equipment armor and super navigation to infiltrate the complex geography of North Vietnam the ghost flame and all 53 total aircraft were converted into a c-47s 41 of them successfully making it to vietnam and serving in the war America may have eventually lost the war but records showed that no village Hamlet or outpost that was protected by a spooky squadron was ever lost for the North Vietnamese Army or the Vietcong as the conflict in Vietnam drew to a close the remaining a c-47s were transferred to the air forces of the Republic of Vietnam Laos and Cambodia the ac-47 still sees some use worldwide to this day as in when Columbia started retrofitting a c-47s for their own Air Force in 2006 they're used in the South American countries mountainous jungle terrain against insurgent groups the a c-47s have created their own mythology in Colombia and are known to civilians by an equally spooky name the Colombians have dubbed it the Avion Fantasma or ghost plane

Channel: Dark Docs

Views: 2,391,350

Rating: 4.8748837 out of 5

Keywords: airplane, airplanes, vietnam war, ac-47, gunship, explain, explainer, aircraft, history, history channel, history documentary, documentary history, puff the magic dragon, dragonship, dark docs, ac 47 spooky, spooky, darkdocs, puff

Id: EuThvjefCTk

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

Many nights as a young Marine In a CAP unit northwest of Da Nang I sat and watched Puff do his work. First they pushed flairs out four to six in a row, then they flew above the area spewing long red tentacles to the target area. They saved many a marines life in 67/68 Thank you for shedding light on (Puff the Magic Dragon)

[u/TheTinman85]

That was good video. Quick, informative, and interesting.