The Deadliest Plane in the World - Puff the Magic Dragon

The Vietnam War was still in its early years. The war of attrition had escalated on both sides. The North Vietnamese Army were emboldened by victories earlier that year and were working with guerrilla fighters of the dreaded Vietcong to move south and infiltrate U.S. and South Vietnamese strongholds.

It was the night of December 23rd, and U.S.-allied forces in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, or the ARVN, were stationed at the Trahn Yend outpost on the Mekong River delta. The troops sensed a stealth attack from the Vietcong was imminent but were powerless to stop it. The local guerrilla army was closing in. ARVN officials had radioed a nearby U.S. Air Force base requesting aerial assistance. The situation was beyond tense.
The guerrillas were accustomed to this procedure and knew they had to simply retreat back into the jungles and fields and hide, and wait for the planes to exhaust their munitions. Eventually, the U.S. planes would assume the enemy had either been wiped out or withdrawn and would themselves retreat from the area. The guerillas would then re-emerge from the shadows and re-engage their attack.

For the Vietcong, though, that night was different. Huge streaks of bright red unleashed from the sky like glowing, thrashing tongues. They rained down in heavy, electric blankets in all directions. A new and powerful weapon had introduced itself that night: The Douglas AC-47. The glowing red of its ammunition gave the craft a nickname that quickly spread among the ARVN: “The Dragonship.”

- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. -

[johnwilliamson]

I was with 3/9 3rd MARDIV, FIRE BASE STUD QUANG TRI PROVINCE South Vietnam in 1969. I can remember watching Puff do it's magic at night on the perimeter of the fire base. Man it was awesome! It sounded like a huge ripping in the sky, with 1 or 2 or 3 streaks of fire raining down to the ground. We were always glad that we were just watching and not getting hit by those mini guns! That was 50 years ago, and I can still see it circling around a target with those guns blazing. SEMPER FI

[dakotamickscorner]

My Dad was a Marine that served in Vietnam from 64-68. I remember Dad telling me stories of Puff the Magic Dragon. He loved that plane. Said it saved their asses many times.

[jesseb]

As a military person, it pisses me off that some General tried to get this shut down just because he could. He tried to take away a weapons platform that saved lives. It’s pretty disgusting and still happens today.

[stevefranklin]

One of my uncles served in Nam and told me that he and his fellow soldiers were on a hilltop needing air support and they sent in a Puff. He said it was awesome to see them walk the fire right down the hillside clearing everything! Thanks to all of you fellas who flew them cause you sure saved a lot of soldiers bacon in that jungle!

[brianforder]

Very cool footage, thank you for this video. I was a gunner on an AC-130H for 16yrs. These gunships are the baddest planes ever in the sky. You can run, but you will only die tired. 105mm round coming down from 18, 000 feet, welcome to your worst nightmare, oh, and death.
Second is the A-10 Warthog, think you are safe in a tank, think again when the depleted uranium 30mm bullets rip it to shreds. Proud to have worked on them all.


Spectre, Spooky and Warthog rule the skies.

[NoMercy]

The name "Spooky" still live on today with the crafts modern equivalent, the AC-130 "Spectre" Gunship.

[geraldwest]

Spooky, puff the magic dragon, was spoken of frequently while I was growing up. Everybody was infantry around me including my Pop who served for 28 years and my Uncles, cousins and neighbors. It was a wonderful time for a young buck whose only super heroes were these giants that surrounded me, infantry.

Thanks for the video, it makes me think of all of them. RIP the greatest men I ever knew.

[jimwal]

As a Vietnam vet, ('67-'68) I am more than disgusted with media types who say that the US was defeated. Combat troops had completely left South Vietnam by '72 and support troops by '73! South Vietnam fell in "75! In the years after the Paris Peace agreement withdrawals, military aid to South Vietnam was drastically cut, as were fuel shipments and civilian contract support workers. The final military support aid to South Vietnam was a petty $300 million--most of which was delayed and not dispensed. In contrast, military aid to Israel at the time was nearly 4 billion $, to a nation of 4 million peop[e versus South Vietnam's 17 million....

[drofmah]

I personally had the great privilege of seeing "Puff" in action while serving in the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam and I tell you this to be on the receiving end of that beast was no joke, nothing comes out alive! Something to behold, at night with red tracers when firing it looked like a red laser rope beam coming out of the sky, scary stuff then.

[daviddonaghy]

My father was a C-47 pilot in WW2. The C-47 was his favorite plane. He hated when they started using C-119s. When he went to Vietnam, one of these Spookys was one of the planes he flew right after the end of WW2. The planes numbers were the same and repairs that they had to make were still visible. To top it all off, the name of his plane was barely visible on the nose. It had been sprayed over but you could still see the outline of the letters.

[davidmclean]

Many nights as a young Marine In a CAP unit northwest of Da Nang I sat and watched Puff do his work. First they pushed flairs out four to six in a row, then they flew above the area spewing long red tentacles to the target area. They saved many a marines life in 67/68 Thanks for shedding light on (Puff the Magic Dragon)

[Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

A *4-STAR* almost DERAILED the project?

Well, there's a *_FIRST..._* 😝

[Chainyanker]

My college buddy became a navigator on a Spooky gunship during the Vietnam War. As navigator he was the guy that communicated with ground forces needing gunfire support. He recorded a bunch of cassettes of these combat missions which I got to listen to during his R&R leave to Hawaii, amazing action, you could hear the Gatling guns going off nearby and the grunts on the ground giving coordinates and direction of fire. In one case the VC were so close the grunt had to whisper into the mic (they had a term for that). One thing I remember was my buddy telling me when they supported the Khe Sanh Valley situation (large bunch of trapped Americans I think) he could see tracers shooting down at his plane from high ridges as they gave close ground support. Great plane, but these days may be easily shot down with shoulder fired missiles, although flares may be a counter measure. I think one AC-130 was lost in the Gulf War.

[Jesse-ld]

Thank you to all who served in any war Thank you for your service

[spookyslav]

I normally take stuff from channels like these with a grain on salt but this if perfectly accurate. My great uncle/ my uncles dad flew this plane on the war to provide air support. I've been told many stories and they back up your info . Keep up the great work.

[michaelbrynesr]

I recall seeing one in action in early 1968 in the village of My Tho, 50-60 Viet Cong occupied a three story building and were firing down on men of the 9th Inf they called for air support and awhile later that plane came over flying in circles and opened up on the building. It tilted to one side and fired, sounded like buzzing and that Lasers were being shot. It took less than a minute and the building looked like it was melting when they flew away was just a pile of rocks, no longer a hotel. Seeing I was one of the guys being shot at, I knew I was blessed that day.

[jamesaritchie]

I talked to a VC who said puff scared them eve n more in the daytime whe n no tracer ammunition was used. He said you didn't often see the plane, and heard nothing that sounded like gunshots, but suddenly bullets were hitting everywhere, so thick and fast that nothing lived through it.

[stevenhashimoto]

My Dad flew in several "Spooky" missions in and out of DaNang during Tet. He was the Chief Air Traffic Control Officer from late 67 to early 68. Before ATC, he was a navigator on F-89s and EC-232s in the 1950s. He told me that the aircrews were running all over the place at night to multiple close air support calls and they had asked for a navigator to help keep up with their position and to aid in RTB. His service record shows 32.5 combat hours in an AC-47 from January to March 1968. He also said that when the minis go off in the bird, it sounds like a long string of firecrackers set off in a metal trashcan (with your head stuck in the trashcan).

[ronhiel]

I got to experience firsthand the AC-47's awesome roar while stationed in Tay Ninh province around the Black Virgin mountain aka Nui Ba Dinh mountain region while assigned to the 11th ACR doing search and destroy missions all along the Ho Chi Minh trails feeding into South Viet Nam. We were very heavily attacked one night by a NVA Regimen bent on overrunning and destroying our 3 troop strong unit.

As a FO for F Troop I put out a call for any and all aircraft to come to our aid and defense and it was simply awesome when Puff the Magic Dragon war ship unexpectedly showed up and broke the back of the Regiment sized insurgence attack on us and drove the assault back deep into the jungle. I took quite a few aerial pictures with my 35mm camera of the gunship in action and it was simply an amazing sight to see and experience, nothing else ever like it. I feel I may owe my life today to that gun ship showing up unexpectedly and getting our butt's out of that dangerous situation. It rained fire from the heavens.

[bdickinson]

4:15 Terry paid for what was needed on his own credit card because it was officially unfunded! Now there folks is a true American patriot to whom many American and ARVN Soldiers and Marines owe there lives! 👊🇺🇸