This Vietnam War USAF newsreel film shows AC-47 Gooney Bird / Spooky gunships at work in the Mekong Delta, and paratroops dropping from C-130s into an area eight miles from Saigon to go into combat against the Viet Cong. They are preceded by a combat control team. In “Zone D”, C-123s are at work defoliating the jungle. The narrator pronounces that the chemicals being used are “harmless to humans” but of course this was horribly incorrect. In Da Nang, the air base is shown with a variety of aircraft including a B-57 Canberras of the 8th Tactical Bomber Squadron being loaded with bombs for interdiction and close air support missions, and F-4Cs being loaded for combat.
The Douglas AC-47 Spooky (also nicknamed “Puff, the Magic Dragon”) was the first in a series of gunships developed by the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. It was designed to provide more firepower than light and medium ground-attack aircraft in certain situations when ground forces called for close air support.
The Fairchild C-123 Provider is an American military transport aircraft designed by Chase Aircraft and subsequently built by Fairchild Aircraft for the United States Air Force. In addition to its USAF service, which included later service with the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, it also went on to serve most notably with the United States Coast Guard and various air forces in South East Asia. During the Vietnam War, the aircraft was used to spray Agent Orange.
Agent Orange—or Herbicide Orange (HO)—is one of the herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. It was a mixture of equal parts of two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
