January 1, 1969. 71st Special Operations Squadron/Nha Trang Air Base, South Vietnam.

An Air Force Reserve crew with the 71st Special Operations Squadron flies the first AC-119 Shadow gunship combat mission in Vietnam. The AC-119 Stinger’s multiple machine guns could strafe the ground even more effectively than those of the earlier gunship, the AC-47. [200] In early 1968, the Air Force saw the need to replace the AC-47 with a larger, more capable aircraft. There wasn’t time to develop one from scratch, so DoD turned to the Reserve’s C-119s. Two versions were equipped to find, fix, and fire on enemy targets at night: the AC-119G Shadow and the more sophisticated AC-119K Stinger, which was given two General Electric J85 jet engines hung outboard of its R-3350 radial engines. The first Gs went to Vietnam in December 1968, the first Ks in October 1969. *