"Puff, the Magic Dragon"

As a pilot it is easy to become attached to a particular type of aircraft that you just love to fly. I turned down my opportunity for flying for the airlines (too regimented for me) but did fly for a living for a number of years.

One day my boss came in and told me that he and his partners had purchased 3 Douglas DC-3 aircraft. Making the transition from a small turbine powered aircraft to the DC-3 was a challenge I willingly took.

The DC-3, first flown in 1935, is an iconic aircraft and a number of them are still flying to this day.

And, yes, I fell in love flying that beautiful aircraft. My Type Rating ride was interesting - a story for another day.

The DC-3 In Vietnam

The C-47 Skytrain, affectionately known as the Gooney Bird (because of it's good looks), became a backbone for Army Air Corps (later the USAF) operations around battlefields.

More than 10,000 of these aircraft were manufactured over the years.

During World War II they were used for carrying supplies, troops, and towing gliders on D-Day.

It's third war, the Vietnam War, saw some ingenious uses for the venerable DC-3. In November of 1965 a new model was introduced in Vietnam.

The C-47 became a tactical attack aircraft, the AC-47 Dragonship. It became affectionately known as "Puff the Magic Dragon".

The AC-47 was fitted out with three 7.62 millimeter min-guns jutting from two windows and the door on one side of the aircraft.

The MXU/470-A minigun modules fired 6,000 rounds a minute by the pilot. He aimed through a side window sight while turning the aircraft in a steep, left bank maneuver.


A photograph of the MXU-470-A minigun module installed on an AC-47 aircraft.

The Dragonship was used primarily for night airborne alert, dropping flares and providing firepower for outposts manned by friendly troops under attack by the Viet Cong forces.


A print showing an AC-47 in flight firing it's guns.

Specifications of the AC-47:

• Crew: Pilot, Co-Pilot, Radio Operator and five others;
• Wingspan: 95 feet 6 inches;
• Length: 63 feet 9 inches;
• Height: 17 feet;
• Empty Weight: 18,135 pounds;
• Maximum Gross Weight: 31,000 pounds;
• Range: 1,600 miles;
• Service Ceiling: 26,400 feet;
• Maximum Speed: 224 mph;
• Cruising Speed: 160 mph;
• Powerplants: Two Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp 1,200 hp 14-cylinder air cooled radial engines;
• Armament: 3 MXU/470 A minigun modules and flares

Airman First Class John Lee Levitow

John Lee Levitow was born on November 1, 1945, in Hartford, CT.

Orginally John intended to join the U.S. Navy but at the last moment changed his mind and joined the USAF in 1966.

He started out as a civil engineer but later transferred to become an aircraft loadmaster.

On February 24, 1969, John was asked to fill in for the regular loadmaster on an AC-47, callsign "Spooky 71".  

That evening the AC-47 lifted off from the runway at Bien Hoa Air Base. As the Gooney Bird climbed into the clear night sky, her eight-man crew prepared for a long combat air patrol mission in the Saigon area. In the cargo compartment, the crew's loadmaster, Airman First Class John L. Levitow, was airborne on his 180th combat mission.

One of John's responsibilities on the gunship was handling the Mark 24 flares. He would set the ejection and ignition controls and pass the flare to the gunner, Airman Ellis C. Owen, who attached it to a lanyard. On the pilot's command, Owen would simultaneously pull the safety pin and toss the flare through the open cargo door.

The Mark 24 looked innocent enough. It was a three-foot-long metal tube weighing 27 pounds. Ten seconds after release an explosive charge deployed a parachute. In another ten seconds the magnesium flare would ignite, quickly reaching a temperature of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit and illuminating the countryside with two million candlepower.

Drifting slowly beneath its chute, each flare would burn for over a minute.

The Vietcong guerrillas, peasants by day and terrorists by night, were denied the protection of darkness when Spooky was about.

Spooky 71 and her crew had been airborne for 4 ½ hours when the pilot, Major Ken Carpenter, received word of enemy action around Bien Hoa. As Carpenter wheeled the Cooney Bird back toward its home field, he and his copilot saw muzzle flashes from the perimeter of the Long Binh Army Base below. The Vietcong were busy here, also.

The gunship circled in an orbit centered around the muzzle flashes. In two lightning-quick attacks with mini-guns chattering, she slammed 3,000 rounds of ammunition into the enemy positions. Spooky 71 then received an urgent request to remain in the vicinity to provide illumination for friendly ground forces. Obviously, the area around Long Binh was the new hot spot.

Major Carpenter received a second call requesting illumination in an area two miles south of Long Binh. As the aircraft swung to the south, the pilots saw flashes from a heavy mortar barrage ahead.

The crew in the cargo compartment followed the sounds of the action. Later, John Levitow recalled, "Every once in a while, you'd hear a muffled noise when a mortar hit. You could hear the engines on the aircraft, the noise of the guns firing and the pilot giving instructions."

Suddenly, Spooky 71 was jarred by a tremendous explosion and bathed in a blinding flash of light. The crew would learn later that a North Vietnamese Army 82-millimeter mortar shell had landed on top of the right wing and exploded inside the wing frame. The blast raked the fuselage with flying shrapnel.

In the cockpit the pilots struggled to bring the lurching Gooney Bird under control. They had been momentarily blinded, and the navigator, Major William Platt recalls, "Even in the navigation compartment, the flash lit up the inside of the aircraft like daylight. The aircraft veered sharply to the right and down."

Though the situation was desperate in the cockpit, it was even worse in the cargo compartment.

Sergeant Edward Fuzie, who was wounded in the back and neck, remembers, "I saw Sergeant Baer, Airman Owen, and Airman Levitow go down right away. Baer was covered with blood."

John Levitow thought one of the mini-guns had exploded. In his words, "But when I was actually hit, the shrapnel felt like a two-by-four, or a large piece of wood which had been struck against my side. It stung me. I really didn't know what it was."

Airman Owen was the first to realize that the Spooky crew was still in mortal danger. "I had the lanyard on one flare hooked up, and my finger was through the safety pin ring. When we were hit, all three of us were thrown to the floor. The flare, my finger still through the safety pin ring, was knocked out of my hand. The safety pin was pulled and the flare rolled on the aircraft floor, fully armed!"

Major Carpenter learned via the intercom that everyone in the back was wounded and a live flare was loose in the plane. In the meantime, John Levitow came to the aid of a fellow crewmember, who was perilously close to the open cargo door. As he dragged his buddy back toward the center of the cabin, John saw the flare.

The canister rolled crazily amidst the ammunition cans which contained over 19,000 rounds of live ammunition. In less than 20 seconds the AC-4 7 would become a flaming torch, plunging its crews to destruction in the night sky.

John had no way of knowing how many seconds remained. The beating the flare had already taken could have damaged the timer, causing ignition before the 20 seconds had elapsed. He was weak from loss of blood and numb from the 40 wounds on his right side. But John knew he was the closest to the flare.

Time and again the smoking tube eluded his grasp as the aircraft pitched and rolled. In desperation, he threw himself on the flare and painfully dragged it toward the cargo door, leaving a trail of blood behind.

The seconds ticked by.

With a final superhuman effort John heaved the flare through the door. It barely cleared the aircraft before igniting in an incandescent blaze.

Major Carpenter recalls, "I had the aircraft in a 30-degree bank and how Levitow ever managed to get to the flare and throw it out, I'll never know." As he finally brought the ship back to straight and level flight, Major Carpenter headed toward Bien Hoa.

He radioed for an ambulance and a medical evacuation helicopter to meet the gunship.

Major Carpenter spoke later about John Levitow and the Gooney Bird. "After the mission I was able to reconstruct what happened by the blood trail left by John. He collapsed after throwing the flare overboard and was evacuated to the base hospital immediately upon landing.

In my experience, I have never seen such a courageous act performed under such adverse circumstances. The entire eight-man crew owes their lives to John, and his quick reactions surely saved the aircraft.

It was not possible to bail out as we had two seriously injured men aboard, one of them John Levitow. How the plane ever flew back to the base, I'll never know. How a plane with over 3,500 holes in the wings and fuselage stayed airborne defies description. One hole measured 3 feet, ¼ inches."

A Medal of Honor Awarded

Airman First Class John Lee Levitow was awarded the Medal of Honor.


A photograph of A1C John Levitow, USAF, wearing his Medal of Honor.

The Citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Levitow (then A1c.), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism while assigned as a loadmaster aboard an AC-47 aircraft flying a night mission in support of Long Binh Army Post. Sgt. Levitow's aircraft was struck by a hostile mortar round. The resulting explosion ripped a hole two feet in diameter through the wing and fragments made over 3,500 holes in the fuselage. All occupants of the cargo compartment were wounded and helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage. The explosion tore an activated flare from the grasp of a crewmember who had been launching flares to provide illumination for Army ground troops engaged in combat. Sgt. Levitow, though stunned by the concussion of the blast and suffering from over 40 fragment wounds in the back and legs, staggered to his feet and turned to assist the man nearest to him who had been knocked down and was bleeding heavily. As he was moving his wounded comrade forward and away from the opened cargo compartment door, he saw the smoking flare ahead of him in the aisle. Realizing the danger involved and completely disregarding his own wounds, Sgt. Levitow started toward the burning flare. The aircraft was partially out of control and the flare was rolling wildly from side to side. Sgt. Levitow struggled forward despite the loss of blood from his many wounds and the partial loss of feeling in his right leg. Unable to grasp the rolling flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare. Hugging the deadly device to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flare through the open cargo door. At that instant the flare separated and ignited in the air, but clear of the aircraft. Sgt. Levitow, by his selfless and heroic actions, saved the aircraft and its entire crew from certain death and destruction. Sgt. Levitow's gallantry, his profound concern for his fellow men, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the history of aviation. If you enjoyed this trip, and if you are new to this newsletter, sign up to receive your own weekly newsletter here: Subscribe here!

Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!