Shadow and Stinger: Developing the AC-119G/K Gunships in the Vietnam War

Conclusion: “Country Roads, Take Me Home”

Conclusion “Country roads, take Me Home” M oSt rEaDErS are likely familiar with the popular song by the late John Denver, referenced in the title. It was one of the fighter pilots’ favorite songs during the Vietnam War. It was equally appropriate for the aC-119 crews. When U.S. aircraft came down across northern laos either from missions “up north” in North Vietnam or from sorties supporting the Hmong on the Plain of Jars, they would begin their descent toward their bases in northern thailand, somewhere north of Vientiane. the primary ground markers were what the airmen called the “country roads.” a pilot could easily follow these “roads” first toward Vientiane, on the other side of the Mekong river, and then navigate off of them from Nong Kai straight to Udorn royal thai aFB. Indeed, many of them sang “Country roads, take me home to the place where I belong!” at the end of 1972, the crews of the 17SoS and 18SoS could extend this theme to mean their “roads” back home to the States. But, in looking back, each and every one of them also had memories of the legacies they left behind. to any historian, this is the crux of the matter. In this case, these crews flew an old, reworked, low and slow cargo aircraft and faced a skilled and resourceful enemy in their own backyard, and the vast majority lived to tell about it. ConCluSion 1 nearly Stillborn one expert declares, “the aC-119s’ road to combat twisted through long-delayed, costly and difficult development. the aircraft started out in a climate of skepticism and opposition. It endured the higher priority aC-130 program. It was overweight. Production of its subsystems lagged, and even when ready for deployment, the aC-119 ran into Southeast asia ‘headroom’ problems.”1 Despite these difficulties, the aC-119s played a significant role in the Second Indochina War, especially in South Vietnam. During their tour in Southeast asia, the Shadows performed the aC-47s’ base support and CaS mission in South Vietnam even better than Puff the Magic Dragon. Moreover, in Steel tiger and other parts of laos, the Stingers “ably” augmented and sometimes surpassed the aC-130 Specters’ combat results as “they interdicted enemy supply lines.” the Shadows also flew missions in the Bolovens Plateau in southern laos and performed covert close air-support and interdiction roles in Cambodia. In the end, “the aC-119s occupied the middle ground in development and operations between the aC-47 (the Model t of gunships) and the aC-130E (the even more sophisticated and potent Cadillac).” this is exactly what they were designed to do.2 In many ways, even though leaders, both then and now, paid homage to the heroic crews who flew these mutants, only considerable diligence by people of vision afforded fixed-wing gunships the chance to reach combat. Indeed, at the time, most leaders, influenced by the strategicstrike transcontinental supersonic bomber culture of the 1950s and 1960s, held such an aircraft—and even its concept—in contempt. the very idea was anathema. Donald J. Mrozek, of the Center for aerospace Doctrine, research, and Education (CaDrE), has stated that, “although the air Force’s official history praises individuals who advocated fixedwing gunships as proof of the enduring importance of the human element, the need for their extraordinary persistence reflected an underlying diffidence within the service toward their goals. Unlike various strategic weapons, the gunship, as a support weapon, won little enthusiasm at the concept or preliminary development stage. Even more significantly, later interest in gunships sometimes depended more on their potential for interdiction than for support of ground forces. In a sense, the ‘square peg’ of the gunship was whittled by technological and tactical innovation in an effort to fill varied mission ‘holes.’”3  Shadow and Stinger the first formal conceptualization of the side-firing, fixed-wing gunship was germinated and nurtured by active-duty and reserve captains and lieutenant colonels who expended great energy to make this weapon a reality. In many ways, they succeeded in spite of the institutional malediction toward low and slow aircraft needs born of battlefield realities. geopolitics Plays the Music, but you dance with “the one who brung ya” the aC-119, designed as a “quick fix” interim supplement for the aC-47, was conceived and its airframe selected at a time when the United States, led by President Johnson, had...