On December 24,1965, President Lyndon Johnson announced a week-long bombing halt on North Vietnam. That same day, an AC47D "Spooky" gunship was shot down during an armed reconnaissance flight just south of the city of Ban Bac in Saravane Province, Laos. Planes in the area of the loss of the plane heard mayday signals, but were unable to establish contact with the crew.
The Spooky had evolved from the famed "Puff the Magic Dragon" versions of the Douglas C47. Puff introduced a new principle to air attack in Vietnam. Troubled by difficulties in conduction nighttime defense, Capt. Ronald Terry of the US Air Force Aeronautical Systems Division remembered reading about flying missionaries in Latin America who lowered baskets of supplies on a rope from a tightly circling plane. Throughout the series of pylon turns, the basket remained suspended over a selected point on the ground. Could this principle be applied to automatic weapons? Tests proved it could, and could be extremely successful.
Puff's "flare kicker" illuminated the target, then the pilot used a mark on the window to his left as a gun sight and circled slowly as three multibarrel 7-62mm guns fired 18,000 rounds per minute from the door and two windows in the port side of the passenger compartment. The airdraft was called "Puff" after a popular song of the day, and because it resembled a dragon overhead with flames billowing from it's guns. Men on the ground welcomed the presence of Puff and the later Spooky version, which was essentially the same as the Puff, because of it's ability to concenterate a heavy does of defensive fire in a surgically determined area. These aircraft were extrememly successful defending positions in South Vietnam, but proved unable to survive against the anti-aircraft defenses in Laos.
The Spooky lost in Laos on December 24,1965, was flown by Col. Derrel B. Jeffords and Capt. Dennis L. Eilers. The crew aboard the aircraft was Maj. Joseph Christiano, MSgt. Larry C. Thornton, TSgt. W. Kevin Colwell, and SSgt. Arden K. Hassenger.
When 591 Americans were released from Vietnam in 1973, the Spooky crew was not among them. As a matter of fact, no American held in Laos was (or has been) released. The Lao were not included in negotiations ending American involvement in the war in Southeast Asia.
In June 1989, Arden Hassenger's wife was informed that a report had been received saying her busband had been sighted alive in Laos. This report is one of nearly 10,000 relating to Americans missing in Southeast Asia received by the US Government since the war ended. Mrs. Hassenger was unable to sleep at night wondering and worrying, yet Arden Hassenger is still missing.
Henry Kissinger predicted in the 50's that future "limited political engagements" would result, unfortunately, in nonrecoverable prisoners of war. We have seen this prediction fullfilled in Korea and Vietnam, where thousands of men and women remain missing, and where ample evidence exists that many of them (from BOTH wars) are still alive today. The US Government seems unable (or unwilling) to negotiate their freedom. For Americans, the "unfortunate" abandonment of military personnel is not acceptable, and the policy that allows it must be changed before another generation is left behind in some faraway war.
SSgt. Arden Hassenger
