Happened upon a website that has a forum with a ton of high-quality photos taken by LIFE magazine, both in country and back home in the U.S. (pro and anti-war protests). Some of the photos are very powerful:
http://saturnic.livejournal.com/170517.html
T.
What was that plane called with those machine guns?
There were several pictures with rows of boots lined up in the foreground, any idea what the significance of that is?
~Matt
Probably Puff the Magic Dragon. AC-130 Spectre. You dont want them hunting you
Woah there are tons of crazy sets of photos on there. The forest firefighter one is amazing too.
Yup. Each pair of boots symbolizes someone KIA or MIA from the unit or battalion or regiment. It looks to be the AC47, firing its miniguns. I don’t think it was the AC130, though, but I’ve only ever seen them firing from the ground (down to us, who’d called it in), and the tracer stream looks to be the guns and not the howitzer.
T.
I kinda like the “Plastic world set” http://saturnic.livejournal.com/171400.html
~Matt
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Woah there are tons of crazy sets of photos on there. The forest firefighter one is amazing too.
I know. I saw some of the others. I’ve added that site to my favorites list.
T.
Great site. Those photos say it all. That was a crazy and tragic time in history. The war split the US in two. I lost two high school friends over there. In the end it really and truly was all for nothing.
**I kinda like the “Plastic world set” **http://saturnic.livejournal.com/171400.html
Yeah, the figure skaters on the lines of coke made me smile 
T.
I still say it’s an AC-47.
I’m agreeing with you. I originally wrote AC130 but was thinking 47. I think when that photo was taken was too early for the U.S. to have fielded the 130 Spectre.
T.
I liked the toxic waste ones and the little dudes climbing the boob was funny.
~Matt
As was the guy doin’ it from behind (hahahahaha!)
T.
I’ve only ever been around the AC130, and Lord that was a sight. What a crazy war Vietnam was.
T.
During Operation Dewey Canyon in 1969 I was fortunate to see their work close up.
Man, that infantry Captain leading his men across that clearing had the thousand yard stare thing going on. You can see his RTO behind him staring the other way. Those two guys had to be nervous as hell.
T.
That is a excellent portfolio of images.It brings back alot of memories.I was a wee little lad(12) at the peak of the war.My uncle who did two Army tours and a cousin in the Air Force both made it home but my cousin has problems with a direct connection to agent orange.
As I grew up in Santa Barbara I witnessed the prostests ( burning banks and trashing the universities)and did not quite understand them because of my age.I remember it was upsetting to my family and now that I understand the connection.The War was a bridge for me to becoming an adult 2 yrs after the exodus from Saigon I signed up for the military.
One more sign of the times: Guard retires UH-1 Huey after 50 years of service
http://www.defencetalk.com/guard-retires-uh-1-huey-after-50-years-of-service-22530/
I still say it’s an AC-47.
I’m agreeing with you. I originally wrote AC130 but was thinking 47. I think when that photo was taken was too early for the U.S. to have fielded the 130 Spectre.
T.
Thats correct. What I meant was Puff or AC-130. Being Vietnam it would have been the 47. Either way you want them on your side. Generically some people call them both Puff.
"The AC-130 Gunship first arrived in South Vietnam on 21 September 1967 under the Gunship II program…In late 1969, under the code name of “Surprise Package”, 56-0490 arrived with solid state laser illuminated low light level TV with a companion YAG laser designator, an improved forward looking infrared (FLIR) sensor, video recording for TV and FLIR, an inertial navigation system, and a prototype digital fire control computer. 
AC-130A performs a left-hand pylon turn
Surprise Package was equipped with the latest 20 mm Gatling guns and 40 mm Bofors cannon, but no 7.62 mm close support armament. Surprise Package was refitted with upgraded similar equipment in the summer of 1970, and then redeployed to Ubon RTAFB. Surprise Package served as a test bed for the avionic systems and armament for the AC-130E. In the summer of 1971, Surprise Package was converted to the Pave Pronto configuration, and assumed its new nickname, Thor.
During Operation Dewey Canyon in 1969 I was fortunate to see their work close up.
Man, that infantry Captain leading his men across that clearing had the thousand yard stare thing going on. You can see his RTO behind him staring the other way. Those two guys had to be nervous as hell.
T.
That comes from one of them having one second more life expectancy than the other 
During Operation Dewey Canyon in 1969 I was fortunate to see their work close up.
Man, that infantry Captain leading his men across that clearing had the thousand yard stare thing going on. You can see his RTO behind him staring the other way. Those two guys had to be nervous as hell.
T.
That comes from one of them having one second more life expectancy than the other
To be a Infantry Captain were the lucky( and the will of God) and the many of the 2nd Lt. who become 1st Lt .upon touch down has his days numbered.
*During the Vietnam War, and in previous wars fought by the United States Army, such as the Korean War, WWII, WWI, Spanish-American of 1898, etc. Leader’s have recieved some of the highest casualty rates. The US Army, as is (or maybe was, there are a lot of untraditional changes taking place within the traditional armed forces; the armed forces “might” be evolving into something different than the way mankind has had armed forces in the past) all or most of other nations, divided into two groups (During the Vietnam War): Enlisted men and officers. The “private” is entry level into the US Army. The “2nd Lieutenant” is the entry level into the officer corps. In Vietnam most 2LT’s were promoted to 1LT almost immediately upon arrival “in country”, just as new Privates were almost immediately promoted to PFC (Private First Class) as soon as they landed. Just a little incentive & extra pay for getting shot at. *
Since both the Private and the Lieutenant are both new; they don’t know how to walk (fast or slow), they don’t know where to walk (off the trail, is it a trail?), they are inexperienced in using voice and hand/arm signals in the field, and directing a machingun to fire one way, when maybe the experienced '60 gunner knows where to fire because he was in “contact” here yesterday (before the LT arrived). These are some routine daily examples. And if the LT’s wearing his rank, or talking on the radio (PRC-25), or giving hand/arm signals…he might be finished, if they’re in a fight. In addition, officers are (or were in Vietnam) trained to be “AGGRESSIVE”, lead from the front…add this attitude to the rank, signals and radio, and the clock’s really ticking now! In many of the so called, “firefights” of the day, towards the ending years, in every “contact” we had, our officers were amongst or the only casualties. So, to answer your question, his survival was not “normally” measured in days or weeks, it was measured in “the first battle”, “CONTACT!” as we called it. If the LT survived his first “contact”, and it was a “hot” one, then “he’s good to go!” (He’ll probably survive).
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Wow! Pretty amazing photos. My uncle Harold was killed in the war supposedly by a sharpshooter. The letter written by a fellow soldier said they were trying to take some hill that they eventually took and then abandoned a few days later. I was about 8 yrs old, we used to bake him cookies and send them to him. He used to write say how much he liked the cookies. About a month after he was killed, a package was returned and all the cookies were broke into small pieces.