C-130 Hercules

by Martin W Bowman

  54-1627 Gomer Grimier went on to serve the 415th SOTS and the 711th SOS before retirement in 1976; while 54-1628 The Exterminator, finished its career in 1994 with the 711th SOS. On 24 May 1969 AC-130A 54-1629 in the 8th TFW, which had been the first C-130 with rear-opening nose-gear doors, was on a night armed reconnaissance mission over southern Laos checking Routes 914 and 920 for truck traffic and was hit when the aircraft was about to attack a truck convoy on a road near the village of Ban Tanbok about twenty miles southwest of the A Shau Valley. It took two rounds of 37-mm AAA in the tail and fuselage as it orbited at 6,500 feet. The hydraulic system failed and the aircraft started climbing uncontrollably until the pilot and co-pilot wrestled the control columns to full forward and brought all the crewmembers to the flight deck to make the aircraft nose-heavy. It was then discovered that the elevator trim, rudder control and autopilot were no longer functioning but Lieutenant Colonel William H. Schwehm and Major Gerald H. Piehl regained partial control by the use of aileron trim and differential engine power. Staff Sergeant Jack Wayne Troglen the illuminator operator had been mortally wounded and died before the aircraft landed. Lieutenant Colonel Schwehm and Major Piehl nursed the damaged aircraft back to Ubon and ordered most of the crew to bail out near the airfield before attempting a landing. As the aircraft touched down the starboard undercarriage collapsed and the AC-130 veered off the runway shearing off the starboard wing when it hit the barrier cable housing causing the aircraft to catch fire. Staff Sergeant Cecil Taylor, the flight engineer, was unable to escape and died in the incident. This was the first AC-130 gunship to be lost during the Việtnam War.4

  54-1630, which went by the equally colourful name of Mors de Coelis was later re-named Azrael (for the angel of death in Islam who severs the soul from the body) and figured prominently in the closing hours of Operation ‘Desert Storm’. On 26 February 1991 Coalition ground forces were driving the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait. With an Air Force Reserve crew called to active duty, Azrael was sent to the Al Jahra highway (Highway 80) between Kuwait City and Basra, Iraq, to intercept the convoys of tanks, trucks, buses and cars fleeing the battle. Facing SA-6 and SA-8 surface-to-air missiles and 37 mm and 57 mm radar-guided antiaircraft artillery the crew attacked and destroyed or disabled most of the convoys. Azrael was retired to the Cold War Gallery at the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio in October 1995.

  Used in the fighting in South-east Asia, the AC-130As proved very effective, especially against vehicles along the Hồ Chi Minh Trail at night. Operations continued until the summer of 1970, by which time it was clear that aircraft with improved all-weather operation and larger-calibre guns were needed. The surviving AC-130As were therefore withdrawn for refurbishment and a C-130A (55-0011) was modified to ‘Pave Pronto’ configuration under the ‘Super Chicken’ or ‘Surprise Package’ programme to meet the requirement for improved all-weather capability. It was armed with two 20mm M-61 Vulcan cannon and two 7.62mm miniguns forward and two M-l Bofors clip-fed 40mm cannon aft of the wheel fairing. Uprated avionics included AN/ASD-5 ‘Black Crow’ truck ignition sensor, Motorola AN/APQ-133 beacon-tracking radar, an AN/AVQ-18 laser designator/rangefinder and AN/ASQ-24A stabilized tracking set containing ASQ-145 LLLTV (low-light-level television). Tests were conducted in October 1969 and in November, 55-0011, better known as Night Stalker, was despatched to South-east Asia. (The aircraft remained on the active USAF inventory until 1995). ‘Surprise Package’ lived up to its name, with expectations proving higher than anticipated and subsequently nine more C-130As were modified to the AC-130A ‘Pave Pronto’ configuration, with AN/ASQ-24A stabilized tracking set, AN/AVQ-18 laser designator and bomb-damage assessment camera, SUU-42 flare ejection pods, dual AN/ALQ-87 ECM pods under the wings and some other improvements. The AN/ASD-5 ‘Black Crow’ truck ignition sensor which was not originally included was reinstated.

  The AC-130U ‘Spooky II’ has a General Dynamics 25 mm GAU-12/U Equalizer 5-barreled Gatling cannon (capable of firing 1,800 rounds per minute); a single-barrel, rapid-fire 40 mm L/60 Bofors cannon and a 105 mm M102 howitzer.

  AC-130U aerial gunners of the 4th Special Operations Squadron conduct a live-fire mission in an AC-130U Gunship during ‘Emerald Warrior’ at Hurlburt Field, Florida in May 2016. ‘Emerald Warrior’ is the Department of Defense’s only irregular warfare exercise, allowing joint and combined partners to train together and prepare for real world contingency operations.

  In Southeast Asia the ‘Pave Pronto’ AC-130As of the 16th SOS wreaked havoc among enemy convoys at night and used their AN/AVQ-18 laser designator/rangefinder to mark targets for F-4D Phantoms carrying laser-guided bombs (LGBs). In December 1971 55-0044 Prometheus was damaged by a 37-mm shell and lost Nos. 3 and 4 propellers, but survived, only to be shot down south-east of Tchepone, Laos on 28 March 1972. It set off with a fourteen man crew captained by Major Irving Burns Ramsower from Ubon on a truck hunting mission over the Hồ Chi Minh Trail in southern Laos. As the aircraft approached the town of Muang Phine, about 35 miles west of Khê Sanh. It was seen to be hit by an SA-2 missile fired from one of the newlyestablished SAM sites in Laos. The aircraft burst into flames, crashed and exploded. No parachutes were seen but an emergency beeper signal was picked up briefly. A SAR task force found no sign of any survivors although the search of the area was limited due to intense ground fire. The Pathet Lao (‘Lao Nation’) subsequently issued a news release claiming that they had shot down the aircraft.

  The first half of May 1972 brought continuing heavy application of air-power, as the North Việtnamese forces pressed toward Kontum. Numerous pitched battles took place in nearby villages, camps and fire support bases. One such engagement occurred at the compound of Polei Kleng (also known as Camp Le Vanh, Firebase Base, Landing Zone Base) Special Forces Camp about fifteen miles west of Kontum.5 An AC-130 Spectre was already airborne in the highlands region, learning by radio that Polei Kleng was under attack by a Communist regiment with tanks. The situation was so serious that American personnel had already been evacuated. The AC-130 crew talked directly with the South Việtnamese commander on the ground and placed fire all around the embattled post. The gunship expended a full load of ammunition, including 96 rounds of 105mm fire, aiming at enemy muzzle flashes and a bridge. The aircrew’s mission report noted, ‘Situation quiet upon departure.’ Later reports revealed that Spectre 03, assisted by fighterbombers, had killed over 350 enemy troops, destroyed the bridge and repulsed a full-scale attack by a North Việtnamese regiment.

  The emergency at An Lôc dictated diversion of the gunship effort away from the trails. On 15 April six AC-119 Stingers moved from Nakhon Phanom, one of the north-eastern provinces of Thailand, to Biên Hỏa, establishing a forward operating location for support of the battle at An Lôc. The AC-130s also shifted effort to An Lôc, but continued to operate from Ubon, landing once or twice at Tân Sơn Nhầt during each mission day to replenish fuel and ammunition. The arrangement greatly lengthened a crew’s time over target at An Lôc. Sometimes, crews remained on duty 24 hours or more without rest, fighting fatigue but appreciating the urgency of the situation on the ground. At least one gunship remained on station over An Lôc around-the-clock. Besides an important night detection and strike capability, the gunships could deliver ordnance far more accurately than the fighter-bombers.

  The earliest AC-130 missions over Lộc Ninh and An Lôc were disappointing. FAC’s were generally inclined to give priority to fighterbombers and often held off gunships from targets to permit strikes by the jets. Lieutenant Colonel George F. Hall, a ‘Pave Aegis’ Fire Control Officer described his crew’s disappointment on their first mission to An Lôc. ‘Over the city the crew received a target assignment, an old French mansion south of the town. Confident in the precision of their 105, the crew promised to hit a particular upstairs window to the disbelief of the ground party and the FAC’s. Rolling in for the first attack, the crew was instead told to pull off to make way for an F-4 strike. Again and again, the gunship
crew prepared to fire, only to be called off.’

  After two hours. Hall and his disgusted crew headed back for Ubon, having fired not a single shot. Hall’s combat tour was interrupted by two weeks of emergency’ leave. Afterwards he returned to An Lôc with his now-veteran crewmates. Hall quickly realized that in the interval, the men on the ground at An Lôc had learned something of the effectiveness of the AC-130. No longer were there delays in applying the Spectre’s firepower. From a bunker in the rubble, an American voice asked for a single 40mm round at an easily-seen fountain; verifying the burst, the voice next called for a second round at an intersection two blocks east. Finally, the voice prescribed a particular house and corner. Hall’s crew thereupon destroyed the building with 20mm, 40mm and 105mm fire. The crew expressed concern during the firing, after learning that friendly forces were directly across the street. The voice below assured them that all was going well, excitedly calling for the crew to ‘keep it coming.’

  Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Opitz related how his crew pinpointed the enemy on one night mission over An Lôc. The AC-130 pilot called for the friendlies on the ground to identify their position with green flares. Green flares promptly appeared from several quadrants of An Loc, indicating the enemy was listening in. The pilot then called for red flares. After several red flares appeared, the American controller on the ground called out: ‘I’ve got no red flares, hit ‘em all.’ Opitz and crew complied, using 20mm with effect.

  Vital for the successful employment of the gunships were the several US Army advisors on the ground at An Lộc, who day after day directed the AC-119 Stingers and AC-130 Spectres to targets by voice radio. Crewmen learned the voice of ‘Zippo’ Smith at Lộc Ninh and invited him to attend one of the monthly parties at Ubon. All were relieved by the news that Smith had successfully exfiltrated after the fall of Lộc Ninh. AC-130 crewmen lavishly praised one Army Colonel at An Lôc who stayed on the air for weeks and seemed especially skilled in directing the gunships to rewarding targets. The use of street and house directions for precision attacks became standard procedure, in nearly all cases either killing the enemy troops or forcing them from cover. AC-130 crewmen arriving at An Lộc knew to expect to be asked whether or not they carried the 105 cannon - the ‘big gun.’ Since the 105 mm could penetrate and stop tanks, those gunship crews with only the 40mm weapon were often frustrated by their ineffectiveness against enemy armour. Opitz on one occasion watched as his ship’s fire splashed against and exploded on the sides of a Communist T-54. The enemy tank moved steadily closer to the friendly position, the ears of its crewmen no doubt ringing but otherwise unharmed. Finally, the friendly radio transmission ended, indicating that the position had been smashed and overrun. With heavy hearts, Opitz and his drained crewmates returned to base.

  On 18 June the first AC-130 ever downed in South Việtnam - AC-130A 55-0043 Spectre II - was shot down in the A Shau Valley, a Communist infiltration route south-west of Huế, by a Strela SA-7A heat-seeking, surface-to-air missile. Two AC-130 gunships had been lost over Laos in March to SA-2 SAMs and one had been hit by an SA-7 but not downed over An Lôc in Military Region III to the south. SA-7s brought down several A-1 Skyraiders and FAC aircraft in the Northern provinces during April and May. Spectre II was operating southwest of Huế at an altitude that should have protected it from the Strela. The target was in mountainous terrain - in a valley with hills around it that reached up to 3,500. The SA-7 was fired from the side of one of the hills. Sergeant William B. Patterson had the job of watching for missiles and AAA fire. He lay on the aft cargo door, actually hanging out into the airstream so he could get a good field of view below the aircraft. It was dark and Patterson spotted the tell-tale flash of light when the missile was fired. It arched up toward the aircraft in a smooth curving trajectory, the motor burning with an eerie blue-white light, holding straight to its course, not porpoising back and forth the way SA-7s usually did. When the missile was 2-3 seconds away, the crew fired a decoy flare, but the SA-7 kept boring right in, hitting the right inboard engine. There was a loud explosion and a flash of fire as the missile struck. The aircraft shuddered, rose up at the nose slightly and then settled down; the #3 engine separated from the wing. The flight engineer called on intercom that they were losing altitude, the pilots worked to pull her up. Someone else was calling out on the UHF radio that Spectre II had been hit by a missile.

  Patterson rolled back into the aircraft, unhooked the restraining strap which kept him from falling out and reached for his chest-pack parachute. At about that time, the right wing came off and the aircraft started into a cartwheeling roll. Patterson managed to hook only one side of his parachute to his body harness, in his haste attaching it backwards, when fresh explosions blew him into the blackness outside. Fortunately, Patterson was an experienced chutist, with a hobby of skydiving. The sergeant lived to tell how he somehow found the rip-cord in the darkness and of his harrowing descent and landing - his chute still only halfconnected. Three men of the fifteen aboard Spectre II that night survived. They were picked up from the A Shau Valley the next morning by the Air Force Jolly Greens.

  Beginning in 1967 the C-130s of the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing flew twenty-eight ‘Commando Lava’ sorties into the A Shau Valley to air-drop 120 tons of defoliants so as to deny the NVA and VC forces their entry corridor into South Việtnam. ‘Commando Lava’ was dangerous work, because the C-130s had to drop down to 200 feet in order to release the chemical compound, thus heightening the risk of being knocked out of the sky by SAM missiles. Unfortunately the mud-making operations - first conceived by William H. Sullivan, the US ambassador to Laos - were no more of a hindrance to the Communists than the annual monsoon and they simply covered over the worst-affected parts of the route with gravel or bamboo matting.

  Meanwhile in 1965 in a similar attempt, ‘Banish Beach’ missions were first flown by C-130s in an effort to deprive the Việt Công of forest sanctuaries by starting forest fires with almost simultaneous drops of fuel drums. There were also ‘Commando Scarf’ bombing missions in which the C-130s carried small XM-41 anti-personnel mines; and in southern Laos, CDU-10 noisemakers were dropped by C-130s as part of the interdiction campaign.

  AC-130A 56-0490 Thor of the 16th SOS, 56th SOW was shot down 25 miles north-east of Pakse, Laos on 21 December 1972 killing Captain Harry Roy Lagerwall and thirteen of his crew. The aircraft had found three trucks near Ban Laongam, 25 miles west of Saravan in southern Laos. It was firing at the target from an altitude of 7,800 feet when it was hit by 37-mm AAA. The aircraft may have been hit in a fuel tank as it exploded and crashed in flames. Two of the crew managed to bail out and were rescued by a 40th ARRS HH-53 some hours later, located by the night vision devices on board another AC-130 and the LNRS equipment on board the helicopter.6

  AC-130U 90-0163 Bad Omen the first AC-130U Spooky gunship to retire from the active fleet flew from Hurlburt Field following a small ceremony on 21 September 2015 to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB.

  55-0014 Jaws of Death survived, ending its career in 1995 and therefore being allocated to the Robins AFB museum in 1996. 55-0029 Midnight Express was retired in 1994, while 55-040 was retired in 1976. 55-046, better known perhaps as Proud Warrior and which in 1957 had been loaned to the USMC for in-flight refuelling tests, was retired in 1994. 56-0469 Grim Reaper also survived the horrors of Việtnam and since 1995 has been used as a ground trainer at the 82nd TRW at Sheppard AFB, Texas. 56-0509 Raids Kill Um Dead was damaged at An Lộc South Việtnam on 23 December 1972; however, it was repaired and later assigned to the 711th SOS. In 1995 and now named Ultimate End, this AC-130A finished its days at the Hurlburt Field Memorial Air Park.

  Meanwhile in April 1970 the decision was taken to convert two C-130Es to AC-130E prototype gunships. The C-130E’s higher gross weight, stronger airframe and increased power offered greater payload and longer loiter time than the original AC-130A gunships. As a result of experience gained in Việtnam, more
advanced avionics were fitted and what was known as ‘Pave Aegis’ armament configuration was created by installing a 105mm howitzer in place of one of the 40mm cannon in the port parachute door, while retaining the two 20mm cannon forward of the port undercarriage fairing. The howitzer was later attached to a trainable mounting controlled by AN/APQ-150 beacon-tracking radar.

  In February 1971 nine more C-130E conversions not dissimilar to ‘Pave Pronto’ AC-130As were ordered. However, by the time that the first AC-130Es were completed in June and July 1971 they represented such a leap forward in avionics over the earlier ‘Pave Pronto’ gunships that they became known as ‘Pave Spectre IV’. All eleven ‘Pave Spectre’ AC-130Es served in Southeast Asia, entering combat in the spring of 1972 when they helped repulse the Việt Công offensive. AC-130Es proved most effective tank killers during night operations and on night interdiction sorties along the notorious Hồ Chi Minh Trail. On 30 March 1972 AC-130E 69-6571 ‘Spectre 22’ of the l6th SOS, 8th TFW at Ubon with a fifteen man crew was shot down near An Lôc, South Việtnam. ‘Spectre 22’ had spotted a convoy of trucks on the Trail 35 miles north of Muang Fangdeng in southern Laos. The aircraft destroyed three of the trucks and was about to fire again to make sure of the kill when it was hit by ground fire. The aircraft was flying at 195 knots and 7,500 feet when 57mm anti-aircraft shells hit its starboard wing and fuselage. The AC-130 caught fire when fuel leaking from the starboard pylon tank ignited. Captain Waylon O. Fulk headed northwest towards Thailand in the hope of reaching Ubon but he and Captain E. N. Bolling and the thirteen other crew were forced to abandon the aircraft which crashed about fifteen miles southeast of Saravan. An HC-130 soon arrived on the scene and took over as on-scene commander of what proved to be a massive and complex rescue mission.7 Numerous aircraft including ‘Nail’ FACs and other Spectres conducted a radio and visual search throughout the night to locate the survivors in preparation for a pick-up attempt at first light. It was discovered that two of the survivors had bailed out soon after the aircraft had been hit and were forty miles to the east of the main group of survivors. At first light in a wellcoordinated operation four HH-53s from the 40th ARRS picked up thirteen men from the main group, one of whom had a broken leg. A few minutes later two Air America UH-34D helicopters protected by A-1 Skyraiders rescued the two other survivors from a well-defended area near the Trail to the east. Unfortunately, the successful rescue of the entire crew of Spectre 22 was overshadowed by the attempted rescue of ‘Bat 21’ that followed in the next few days.8