Spectre Gunner: The Ac-130 Gunship

SPECTRE

GUNNER

The AC-130 Gunship

MSGT. DAVID M. BURNS

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Spectre Gunner

The AC-130 Gunship

Copyright © 2013 by Msgt. David M. Burns.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-6972-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-6974-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-6973-3 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013900056

iUniverse rev. date: 01/28/2013

CONTENTS

Glossary

Preface

Spectre Gunner

1. The Squadron

2. First Flight

3. Oley Arrives

4. The Men Of Spectre

5. Ubon Nightlife

6. Dry Season

7. The Warlord

8. My 100

9. Tchepone

10. Sockey Game

11. Ladies Of The Nco Club

12. Gunners’ Hooch

13. Missions

14. Going Home

15. Grand Forks Air Force Base

16. Return To Spectre

17. Spectre Maintenance

18. One-In-A-Million Shot

19. Near-Death Experience

20. The Big Gun

21. Aircraft 044

22. The Easter Offensive

23. The Gunners

24. Aircraft 043

25. Leaving

26. Arriving In Okinawa

27. Another Loss

28. Return To Ubon

29. Korea

30. Korat

31. Fall Of Saigon/Phnom Penh

32. The Mayaguez

33. Don F. (DC)

34. Leaving Spectre/Thailand

Epilogue

Conclusion

This book is dedicated to the Spectre crewmembers who lost their lives in defense of their country. Each and every one of them was a very special airman whom the nation can be very proud of. It is also dedicated to all the Spectre men—past, present, and future—who are still living up to the standards of duty, honor, and country in their everyday lives. And to the Spectre airmen who are now involved in another war.

Special dedication to Senior Master Sergeant Brian P. Morrison, who took care of me in the worst of times and always kept his word; to Chief Master Sergeant P. J. Cook, a gunner who helped me with parts of this book; and to all the Spectre men who have passed away since the end of the Vietnam War. I love them and miss them all very much, and I look forward to seeing them again someday—but not too soon, I hope. They actually lived the code: duty, honor, country.

GLOSSARY

AAA (Triple A): anti-aircraft artillery

ABCCC: Airborne Command and Control Center

AC: aircraft commander

ACM: additional crew member

AP: air police

ARRS: air rescue and recovery service

ARVN: Army of the Republic of Vietnam

BC: Black Crow

BDA: battle-damage assessment

Charlie: vietcong

DMZ: demilitarized zone

E&E: escape and evade

Fence: border between Thailand and Laos

fire base: army artillery base

FIS: fighter intercepter squadron

fragged: assigned to a specific area of operations

TFS: tactical fighter squadron

Gomer: NVA Vietcong, and communist troops

ground-pounder: a non-flying airman

IO: illuminator operator

IR: infrared operator

Jolly Green: air force rescue personnel flying HH-53 helicopters

LLTV: low-light-level TV

mm: millimeter

Moonbeam: nighttime call sign for ABCCC

NKP: nakhon phanom

NOD: night-observation device

Palace Gun: special air force volunteer program, aerial gunner

PJ: Para rescueman

SAM: surface-to-air missile

sparkle: firing tracers into the target so the F-4 can see where to bomb

TDY: temporary duty

TIC: troops in contact

winchester: out of ammunition

PREFACE

Prior to joining the US Air Force in 1967, I joined the US Navy when I was fifteen years old. I spent sixteen years in the US Navy as an aviation ordnance man (airborne weapons). My last duty station was at the US Navy Recruit Training Command in San Diego, California, where I trained new recruits for three years. In 1969, I was assigned to the Sixteenth Special Operations Squadron as an aerial gunner. After retiring in 1978, I wanted to write a book about my experiences in the squadron, but I kept putting it off. In 2012, I decided to tell the story of the most outstanding men I have ever had the privilege to know. It is a story of a select group of men who chose to fly very hazardous nightly combat missions over uncharted mountainous terrain deep in enemy territory called the Ho Chi Minh Trail. These men were shot at nightly; in six cases, they were shot down. Bravery, honor, and heartbreak were nightly occurrences.

David M. Burns

Master Sergeant, US Air Force, Retired

SPECTRE GUNNER

My story begins in December 1969. I had just completed aerial gunners’ school in Lockbourne, Ohio. I attended survival school at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington and finished at the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) Jungle Survival School in the Philippines.

I was assigned to the Sixteenth Special Operations Squadron as an aerial gunner in the Palace Gun program. I was part of a twenty-six-man replacement (both officers and enlisted) crew that was replacing squadron members who had finished their one-year tours.

I knew the first sergeant of the combat wing at Clark Air Base since I had served a previous Vietnam tour in 1967–1968. I had met him at the NCO club, and he asked me where I was going. I told him I was assigned to Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand for duty with the Sixteenth Special Operations Squadron.

He looked at me like I was crazy and said, Those birds are sitting ducks! One was just shot down this year!

I told him it was what I wanted, and he told me to contact him when I finished snake school (jungle survival). He would arrange a direct flight to Ubon from Clark since they had a daily scatback (T-37) flight going. He said I could take a friend with me if I wished. If I took the regular klong flight (a C-130 trash hauler), I would have to stay in Bangkok for a few days. The upcountry shuttle would take all day.

I told him I would let him know, and we went to town. During our training, I made two friends that I especially got along with. Jerry Olson (Oley) was a staff sergeant who was a motorcycle nut. The other was Dwight, a young airman who was just starting out in the air force. I got along with the rest of the people okay, but Oley, Dwight, and I hung out together.

The senior student was kind of a dunderhead, and I didn’t get along with him at all. The day finally came when we were set to leave. We were scheduled for the klong in two days. I contacted my buddy and told him I was ready to go. I asked Oley and Dwight if they wanted to come along, but they wanted to spend a couple of days in Bangkok.

I made my arrangements with the first sergeant and was scheduled to leave the next day. I told Oley to tell the student leader when he called my name for roll call to say, I heard that Dave went AWOL with a Filipino broad. The next morning at 0730, I got on the scatback and hauled ass!

CHAPTER ONE

The Squadron

After three hours, we arrived in Ubon Air Base. The scatback had radioed ahead and told the tower to tell the Sixteenth that they had an incoming crewmember. As I went into the small terminal I was greeted by a tall, sharp-looking technical sergeant with a marine haircut. He looked like a marine NCO. He introduced himself as Technical Sergeant Jack (his call sign was Gunner Jack) and put me in the back of a jeep.

We arrived at the squadron; the first thing I noticed when I entered the building was the emblem right above the entrance door. It was a ghost coming out of a full moon with a blue hood and two 20mm guns blazing. To the right of the front door, a sign said, Spectre: The Fabulous Four Engine Fighter! I saw Spectre on all the office doors.

I was introduced around. Everyone from officer to enlisted was very friendly and did their best to make me feel at home. I met the first sergeant, and he indoctrinated me into the squadron. He told me about the outfit’s history, its nightly missions, and its outstanding, all-for-one-and-one-for-all mentality. The squadron’s theme song was Ghost Riders in the Sky. It did seem most appropriate.

The Sixteenth SOS call sign Spectre flew modified C-130 aircraft which became the AC-130. The aircraft were painted black and had four turboprop engines. For armament, they had four 20mm guns and four mini guns in portals on the left side of the aircraft. This was the most deadly gunship in the world!

When in the attack mode, the aircraft flew in a 30-degree left bank and circled the target. It went round and round the target so it was not hard for the communist (Gomer) gunners to figure out our position. The pilot varied his altitude and circle width to throw them off, but things got dicey after a few orbits! They flew secret missions into Laos, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, up by the Chinese border, Cambodia, and all over Southeast Asia, interdicting the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The squadron had six aircraft assigned with a normal eleven- or twelve-man crew. There was the pilot, aircraft commander (AC), copilot, flight engineer (FE), table navigator, night-observation device operator, the right scanner, a forward gunner, an aft gunner, two sensor operators, an illuminator operator (IO), and a combat camera man. Each man had a specific job and they all depended on each other for their very survival!

The first sergeant did not mince any words. He said they had lost a gunship that was trying to land at Ubon after being hit by anti-aircraft fire. Everyone bailed out but the pilot, copilot, flight engineer, and IO. The FE and the IO were killed when the plane crashed. The aircraft flew at a maximum of 5,000 feet and was a sitting duck! It depended on the night and the skill of the crew to survive. Most nights, at least one aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft artillery (AAA).

When he asked if I still wanted to spend a year here, I said, Of course! Where did the name of that fabulous four-engine fighter came from?

He told me that in early 1969, a Spectre gunship was on an armed recon mission in north Laos. They spotted what appeared to be a communist helicopter flying from North Vietnam into Laos with no lights. They received permission to fire on it and shot it down!

He said, Then we were off to see the commander and the rest of the crews. The squadron commander was a major. He seemed to be a very professional, friendly man who always looked after his troops. During the dry season (October to April), we will be flying every night full bore. During the wet season, we will still be flying, but the Ho Chi Minh Trail will be flooded out. We will be looking for targets of opportunity!

There were seven engineers, six IOs, and twenty-something gunners. The majority of them were scheduled to leave as soon