Spooky 21's mission was covert but vital to the war. It was part of a secret combat operation known as Tiger Hound, a search-and-destroy mission aimed at the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a series of dirt and stone paths hidden in the Laotian jungle that served as an enemy supply line. It connected the communist North Vietnamese military with its allies in the Viet Cong insurgency hiding in the south.
“Without the Ho Chi Minh Trail,” said military historian James Willbanks, “the war doesn’t go on.”
The plane
The AC-47 Spooky was the first in a series of aerial gunships developed to pour huge firepower down on ground targets during the Vietnam war.
Spooky was fearsome in fight. But scouring a jungle for targets in daylight, its big belly, slow turns and relatively low flight path could make it easy pickings for even simple Viet Cong air defenses.