FB Post by Jim Cross, Aug 6, 2023
How many of you were fortunate enough to get a light show from "Puff the magic dragon", an AC-47 transport outfitted with three 7.62mm miniguns capable of firing 6000 rounds per minute with every 5th round being a tracer. The sound alone was sure to make the enemy look for a hole to hide in. Thanks Puff!
Replies
Bill Goupil
It was both comforting and terrifying at the same time when it worked out close to your position
Paul Adler
Cu Chi/Phouc Vinh Mar. 69-Jan 70:
Out of the silent night we’d see then hear the large plane approaching. Word would spread like wildfire that Puff was nearby! A lot of guys would climb up top for the upcoming light show.
We’d sit on the roof of our hootch smokin’ dope, trippin out watching Puff fly along in a slow almost lazy arc. Suddenly a continuous stream of red light (red tracer every 5th round) would appear from the side of the aircraft followed a few seconds later by the buzz saw sound.
To me the sound the mini-guns made was more like a really long and loud fart. First time I heard it I thought ‘ holy crap how fast is that thing firing?’ Then I laughed. A big fart on Charles. Not silent - but deadly as hell.
Really a very strange experience if you think about it. For me part of the very surreal nature of the whole thing as portrayed in ‘Apocalypse Now’. That and trying to shoot down a flock of peacocks (not sure if peacocks) while sitting on the side of a helicopter using a 30 caliber machine gun to kill a bunch of innocent f**king pretty birds because the 21 year old pilot was f**king bored - all this while listening to Merrilee Rush sing Angel of the Morning over the intercom. It’s a Great War!!
Despite hating being in the army back then now I am so glad I volunteered.
George Harby
Puff would wipe out an acre per second, l was told.
Marvin Birkes
It saved our bacon more than once , 25th. Inf. Manchus ... .iron triangle.
Ted Govier
I saw it. We had a convoy ambushed across the river and was unable to help them. Gun ships, Huys & Cobras, an F4 & Puff did the job. Lots of dead & wounded. !968, I don't remember the month. Dau Tieng 25th INF.
Bruce Hoover
It was awesome to watch and it made you thank God they didn't have that weapon.
James Skipworth
I watched Puff work out almost every night on the Operation Asha Valley that lasted 52 days and nights as USMC 1/9, 2/9, 3/9, 3rd Marine Division in 1968/69 marched thru the Valley capturing the largest cache of the Vietnam War which included thousands of small arms plus ammo, 155 artillery pieces the Russian where selling to NVA, to many explosive devices to count, Half Tracks and over 1.5 enemy KIA’s counted but not counting the NVA taken as prisoners during the Operation. “SEMPER FI Marines and Puff The Magic Dragon”
Dale Harbitz
My first night with my new unit in the jungle, we observed from a few ‘kliks’ out, “Puff’s” mini-guns raining red tracers onto the jungle perimeter of FSB Phyllis as the NVA attempted to penetrate and overrun the base. 12 May, ‘69.
Gene Charny
More likely than not, if you had Puff working for you, you were in deep doodoo.
David Keefe
I'm here today because of Spooky one-one and Sppoky one-two, out of Cantho Airfield. My first transmission after one-ones first pass was "What the fuck was that?" No joke.
Rick Frantz
If the enemy had to think about finding a hole they never had time to find it. Once Puff opened up everything in the target area was demolished.
Gee Meadows
Saw and heard that many times at Pleiku. The bullfiddle moan of the guns was a "Spooky" sound!
John Stanley
I was a crew chief on one out of Bien Hoa. Hated that plane but it sure did its job.
Kevin Lloyd-Thomas
The 2nd D&E Platoon. 1st Australian Task Force. The battle at Thua Tich, The night of 29 May 1969. We were a ready reaction and long range reconnaissance platoon.  I was a section commander in that platoon. 
Our platoon and four APCs took on what Australian and SVN intelligence said was an estimated VC and NVA force of 600 to 700.
We had no casualties, but such were the number of dead, and wounded enemy, with them taking away their dead and wounded that we had to bring in Puff the Magic Dragon twice that night because if they realised what a small force we were they could have wiped us out. 
Our platoon later became known as the ghost platoon, as we took on the Australian government, and the Australian army to recognise our existence, because as a result of the aftermath of the battle at Thua Tich, being ambushed ourselves the next day by remnants of the force we had taken on the previous night, and what happened in Xuyen Moc the day after, the platoon was disbanded and all record of our existence taken out of all of the commanding officers diaries, and all other records of the Vietnam war. 
Four of us fought the Australian government and the army for three years to force them to recognise us, so that former members of the platoon could get help and support from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
On 29 May, 2008, 39 years to the day of the battle at Thua Tich, the 2nd D&E Platoon was finally recognized by the Australian government. 
Two books were written about the platoon and what happened.
Ghost Platoon by Frank Walker, and ANZAC’s Betrayed by Don Tate.
Life was good for many years until the GFC wiped me out financially, and in May 2011 I was about to drive over an 80 meter cliff into the ocean below and take my own life. 
It took over five years to be able to turn my life around and beat antidepressants, legal and illegal drugs, alcohol and 50 to 60 cigarettes a day.  A common story for thousands, if not millions of veterans and their families and children around the globe.  To help Veterans and their families around the world, it took two years to tell my story of how I turned my life around and put it in a book to be able to help others. Beat PTSD - How a Combat Soldier Conquered Chronic PTSD to Live a Life That Matters and How You Can Too.
Our Iraq and Afghan veterans, in particular, are facing the same issues now that we faced all those years ago. The big difference being that ours was a war where we came home to face the vitriol and abuse heaped on us by our countrymen and women as Vietnam veterans. 
Thankfully, our veterans of the more recent wars are not treated this way, as neither they should be, But face the same issues as the result of war, PTSD. And what about soldier suicide?  A chronic issue, and getting worse. 
It’s true to say, and this goes back to World War I, World War II, Korea, and to all subsequent wars right up to today, that it’s the wife and families that bear the brunt of the aftermath of a soldiers return from a war zone.
 if you know of anyone who needs help, the best advice you can give them is to persuade them to go and seek help, to do this anonymously to avoid the stigma and career threat of asking for help, and if they are married and have children, or in a partnership and have children, they must have them ask for help together as well. By doing this, they will be able to start their lives again, and achieve whatever goals and aspirations they have, no matter what their current circumstance might be.
With the most sincere best regards to all veterans and their families who might see this.
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