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293 I n 1944, when asked how the Allies would defeat Hitler, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared, “Hitler built a fortress around Europe, but he forgot to put a roof on it.” So it remains in the twenty-first century that the expenditure of manpower and treasure to provide America adequate airpower to defend its borders, its interests, and the peace of the planet has become essential in all that our foreign and defense policy seeks to accomplish. Among the components of American airpower are many of the most modern fighter, bomber, cargo, and intelligence aircraft known to mankind. The technical advances made over just the last two decades are staggering, to be sure. However, in all this time one group of US airmen has continued to fly a low and slow weapon system that continues to link them with their comrades on the ground—the AC-130. Since the time the great gunships first launched, there have been those skeptics and naysayers who continually seek new systems to take their place. As of October 2009 they have not found such a replacement, and so to pay honor to those who have risked and continue to risk their existence for their fellow Americans, this work seeks to explain and analyze the history of the AC-130. To drive the message home, it is worth taking a look at one last example of what it is like to fly on an AC-130 in harm’s way. A Typical Mission In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, the Air Force Studies and Analyses Agency put together a 1996 report on the Battle of Khafji. Since the AC-130 played such a vital role in that and other key engagements of that conflict, many of the interviews the author conducted were with members of the first gunship on site during the battle. While I have written throughout this book about various AC-130 missions that span the life of these gunships from Vietnam to current Conclusion Some Final Thoughts about the Night Hunters 294 | CONCLUSION actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the one described by the crew members of the first AC-130 at Khafji summarize a typical mission perhaps better than any other available and explain to the reader what it is like to fly the AC-130 into combat. In late January 1991, Maj. Paul Havel was the command pilot of an AC-130H just before the first Persian Gulf War ground action. As noted in chapter 11, Al-Khafji is located on the border between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The Iraqis decided to send dozens of vehicles and thousands of troops to take the town. The only Coalition forces in the vicinity were a group of Marines in a long-range reconnaissance team. Havel and his crew were on alert when the call came from an ABCCC aircraft that there was trouble in Khafji. The Marines were trapped on the rooftop of a building inside the town, which was controlled by the Iraqis. As Havel put it: “So we took off headed to Khafji to that AO up there and as soon as we approached we contacted ABCCC who, in turn, passed us on to a Marine airborne FAC, who was flying an OV-10.” The FAC reported minor threats from AAA and SAMs and directed them to “take out anything north of the town.”1 As they arrived over the target, they saw the OV-10 dispensing decoy flares and random AAA fire from the north side of the town. The OV-10 requested that the AC-130 engage with its 105mm howitzer. The gunship turned and came in from over the nearby Persian Gulf at about nine thousand feet to avoid radar detection and to gain the element of surprise. They soon spotted eight personnel carriers, which were the lead elements of an armored reconnaissance unit. With AAA fire increasing, they decided to eliminate the AAA units first. Havel recalled: “I decided to use the number six gun, which is a 105mm howitzer, otherwise known as a ‘crowd pleaser.’” The gun jammed, and as they were trying to fix it the loadmaster cried out, “Strela, Strela, Break right, break right!” During this delay the FAC called for artillery fire, so they had to pull back and wait for their turn to reengage.2 Once they returned, they hit the AAA sites with the 105mm but could only locate two of the eight vehicles. “Bad luck for these two...

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