How Many Viet Nam Vets Here?

[Sully]

[rhino 2]

Someday it will........Time is marching on........

[Sully]

[rhino 2]

We called them Puff.......[As in the magic dragon]..Once had a LZ cleared for us by one,

When he opened up it looked like he was standing still spitting fire..Kept Charleys head down thats for sure .......

[Sully]

We called them Puff.......[As in the magic dragon]..Once had a LZ cleared for us by one,

When he opened up it looked like he was standing still spitting fire..Kept Charleys head down thats for sure .......

Puff Was The C-130.....and C-47........

[rhino 2]

Puff Was The C-130.............

Nope.!.......Puff was the AC 47.....Also Known As....... Spooky....

[rhino 2]

Indeed Puff was the AC 47. Here is one link of many on YouTube about it.

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And here is the search results using DuckDuckGo

My unit which served in the Iron Triangle was visited by Puff on numerous occasions due to the kind of missions we ran, usually S&D in the triple and double canopy jungle along the Ho Chi Minh trail as it came out of Laos and Cambodia along the border. Needless to say it helped us break the backs of numerous NVA campaigns some Regiment in strength launched to annihilate us, three full strength mounted infantry heavy mechanized Troops of the fearsome 11th ACR. Usually 1k to 1.2k strong. This area was in the same area that Lt Col Hal Moore fought in the movie 'We Were Soldiers'. Puff was awesome, unmatched IMHO.

The name S&D Missions.....AKA...Search and Destroy...Were re named to ease the sensibilities of the press to Seek and Find.. ...Another term H&I..AKA...Harassment and Interdiction Fire..Was frond upon.. .....

[rhino 2]

Call it any name one wants but you know like I did it was to find the basturds and kill them, all or as many as we could and we so often did. We searched for their huge hidden/buried caches of food, ammo, weapons, medical supplies or whatever and then destroy the caches and often the enemy guarded them. Anywhere from a mere squad to as many as a company with more, usually the NVA dug in nearby resting up so we saw a lot of close combat. A lot of the enemy guarding the caches were often VC more so than the hard core NVA. The VC were often under gunned so they liked to hit us fast and then run away and hide to fight another day.

Farmers by day......Soldiers at Night....

[rhino 2]

I found another YouTube video on the gunships known first as Spooky and then eventually Puff and their inception through their end of use in the VN war for America. Turns out there really was an airship, the AC 130 was indeed used. The C 47 was the forerunner then evolving into the AC 47 right on through the AC 119 and eventually the AC 130, a boxed wing configuration. That was the version I knew and had work for me being the unit FO in 1970.

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I was there in 66....Four years before the AC47 was replaced...And was nicknamed Puff.

And not just for the song.....I was an RTO..And i would communicate with them though TOC.....At that time all they fired were the 7.62...But with multiple guns at a frighting high rate.............................................. ....................................

What surprises a lot of non-military is when i tell them that for every red tracer they see there's 5 rounds behind each one........

[MikeyTX]

rhino 2: No body left Nam the same as they were before...............

To coin an old phrase here 'I went over there as a boy and returned a (haunted) man'. Actually an aged and haunted grown man but not in years but in what I saw and had to do. Went over as an innocent but came home as......... one can fill in the rest. Never again.

No one did. Had a friend for years that I'd ride with to Sturgis. He was Air Force. He re armed the B-52's. When they'd lose one for whatever reason it affected everyone he said.

[rhino 2]

No one did. Had a friend for years that I'd ride with to Sturgis. He was Air Force. He re armed the B-52's. When they'd lose one for whatever reason it affected everyone he said.

Blame the Wiz Kidd........McNamara, For causing so many to be shot down..Had they sent them deep over in North Vietnam early in the War the North would have been knocked out before they the north had a chance to set up the SAM sites..

[MikeyTX]

Politics as usual.

[rhino 2]

Politics as usual.

Weak Politicians as usual......

[Evets]

39th Signal Bn '71-'72

Motorized Sniper Target (e.g. drove a Colonel in a jeep)

[rhino 2]

39th Signal Bn '71-'72

Motorized Sniper Target (e.g. drove a Colonel in a jeep)

Sniper School # 101......Never shoot the driver, Shoot the passenger sitting next to the driver....Like in the old cowboy movie's ...Shoot the Guy with the most feathers in his bonnet........

[Sully]

Remember Saying This..........

[rhino 2]

[QUOTE=Sully;864711]

Boots on the ground........

[Sully]

[Sully]

[Sully]