Lew Hartswick wrote:
Jim Chandler wrote:

Puff the Magic Dragon. Gunner


That's the one. "Puff" was one of the names we carried. "Spooky" was
the tactical radio call sign we used. I flew on "Spooky 52" out of
Bien Hoa.

Jim

When were you there? I was there as a Civilian (tech rep) in the fall
of 65 for about 3 months.
Very intresting place. Saw Puff and the only place I ever saw a U2
take off. WOW talk about "homesick angles". :-)
Have some pictures of the hutches etc and a lot of Saigon I look
at once in a while. :-)
...lew...


I was there from December of 1967 to November of 1968. I actually
started off at Nha Trang on "Bull**** Bombers" (psywar C-47s) but after
two flights with them and throwing nothing at Charlie but my frigging
lunch I went to Spook when they asked for volunteers. I figured that if
I was going to get my ass shot at, at the very least, I wanted to be
able to shoot back.

I've seen a couple of U-2s and you're right. I often wished that hte
skydiving planes that I jumped from could do that. It would have made
more jumps per day possible. :-) I also saw the SR-71 blast out of
Mildenhal England in 1982. It's no slouch either.

Jim