Think they also called em 'Puff the Magic Dragon' yea?

Or was that only in that one John Wayne film?

Yup, They were called Puff, Spooky by the ground pounders.

And the VC and North Vietnamese called them "&%$#@!!!"

Really did mess up the VC's day, didn't they?

Just administered 7.62mm Headache cures.

There's a video at YouTube, all sorts of Air Force and Army aircraft pounding the crap out of targets, set to AC/DC's "Thunderstruck."

Just awesome.

Weren't this also the plane that carried the paratroopers on D-Day? Me and my dad once worked on the interior of one that was being restored and actually flew on D-Day.

C-47s were used throughout WW2, Korea, and Vietnam, still in use today in many smaller Air Forces.

Uh-oh! Is that a CAP cadet? Hope you didn't mess with him too much. It's those blue berets you really gotta look out for though.

Yeah, there were a few CAP cadets there, and a couple blue beret ones showing their massive ego power verbally berating anyone not moving fast enough away from the warbirds.

They do that--training. Tell the ones with the Michigan "63" shoulder patch that you know "Colonel Coyote".

Oddly the first c-47 gunship was put together by a bunch of teenage kids that had time on their hands and thought hey this would be neat. I know this because I know one of the people involved that put it together in nam. It was done out of necessity the military brass refined it into what became puff or spooky or whatever name it was called by.

Much like the development of the gun trucks that were used in nam it was done out of necessity by the people on the ground

The first AC-47s actually had 4-6 .30 machine guns sticking out the side, because one pilot discovered that a O-2 Birddog with a M-60 machine gun sticking out the door at a slightly downward angle made a great 'Area coverage weapon' when he circled an area, it concentrated the fire to one key area.

Then somebody though sticking the GE Miniguns sticking out the side on a C-47 added great volumes of firepower. The term Puff the Magic Dragon came from the A: Popular song from the time and B: Captured VC prisoners who heard the guns going off overhead, and being a superstitious people, said it sounded like a dragon. So the AC ships became Puffs, later Spooky's when the AC-119 and AC-130s came into play.

The Gun trucks was as old as WW2. Numerous units added hunks of knocked out Nazi armor to the cabs to protect the crews, and was revised in Korea. During Nam, it became an art form. Adding the already quad fifties that USED to be common on the US M-16 half track. Drop that quad unit on a Deuce and a Half, instant gun truck. Some of the 5 ton trucks, they dropped a M-113 hull in the bed and used it as a crude tank. Wasn't uncommon to have a gun truck sprinkled with every time of weapon the military used, M-60s, .30 cals, .50 cals, 75MM and 106MM recoilless guns and occasionally a flame thrower.

Sadly only one original Nam era gun truck survives, 'Grim Reaper' is the last of the many.

They should have loaded up with Agent Orange, and dispersed them all over population centers in North Vietnam during the war.

Awesome that one is still flying. Dad was the groundcrew chief for one. the hariest time with him and that plane was an all out attack on the perimiter of Tan Son Nut. He watched the plane bank over on one wing as soon as it was lifted off and rake their own fenceline. Mr. Charles was that close.

AC-47 Spookies were cool planes. They were called Dragon ships, puff, or puff the magic dragon. I am also a fan of the AC-47 phantasms that were made out of the AC-47s the USAF sold to the Colombians in the 80's. Not meany people are aware of that story.....