It’s hard for me as a born and bred, high speed, low drag, strike fighter guy to admit this, but if I was a ground pounder? In a pinch? In a relatively permissive surface-to-air threat environment? I maybe wouldn’t want a Hornet on call. I’d maybe ask for an AC-130, if one was available. …
I remember when its predecessor, the AC-47 – aka ‘Spooky” came out – able to spray an area the size of a football field and put a bullet in every square foot?
They are the ground-pounder’s friend.
In my time the “Spookys”, as they should have been, were reserved for US and the ocasional ARVN CAS missions…as for the likes of us and our little brown brothers no such luck…we essentially conducted company size reconnaissance in force operations deep in Indian Country…and except for the occasional Slick( A transport HUEY with M-60 door gunners on each side returning from a re-supply mission someware )..,no CAS was avaiable…we planed for it..we allowed for it…we didn’t Bitch… we had no other choice. Best, Frank C.
PS, I do recall a couple of armed Chinooks attached to the 1st Cav in I Corps just before and after Tet 1968…MGs and rocket pods sticking out all over the flippen place… fearsome indeed…and as flyboys say around here, they always flew in a self supporting two ship…best of all their names… ” Easy Money” and my all time favorite ” Birth Control”….priceless.