Callsign: Spectre
-
-
4.0 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
Callsign: Spectre is the true story of a young man from a small town in Pennsylvania who grows up and enlists in the United States Air Force at nineteen. Nearly forty years after the fact, Jeff Noecker recounts his combat flight experiences from the Vietnam War flying in an AC-130 Spectre gunship. The story follows him from his initial air force training to being accepted into an unusual Special Operations unit.
What sets this story apart from the others that have been written about Vietnam is the Spectre gunship that Noecker flew in on his missions. While the US Air Force was flying hundreds of F-4s, F-105s, B-52s, OV-10s, O-2s, A-7s in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, there were only fourteen AC-130A Spectre gunships in theater and only one squadron that flew them—Noecker’s squadron. There were even fewer than fourteen when the program began in 1968; the first few flew out of a base in Vietnam.
The stories contained here resemble a diary, presenting both personal anecdotes of Noecker’s and of stories he heard over the course of his time in service. Some of these may seem a bit farfetched, but Noecker sticks to the facts as much as possible. Unbelievable as some of the stories sound, his tales of his time in the air are unmistakably true.
After being "live" for a year, I find that one piece of data was incorrect in the original printing. This has been corrected and a small amount of other data has been added. The corrections appear in the second printing of both hard and soft covers which are available now and will be available in ebook format very soon.
Customer Reviews
Outstanding characterization of Gunship Life from a true hero
Reading is book as my military career comes to a close after 20+ years of service with over 17 years in the AFSOC and AC130U Gunship community make me realize that the story is often the same, the only real difference is the location and those at the business end of our guns. Callsign: Spectre is a must read for any new Air Commando as well as those of us that came along and took the reigns to continue writing the history that the men of the 16th SOS started in the early years of the Gunship program. Reading this novel brought back multiple waves of emotion; from the basic survival school story about turning around on the final day to see the stars and stripes was flying over my head, to memories of my combat experiences. The similarities between the authors early career as a B-52 weapons troop and mine doing the same thing made an immediate and lasting connection. Many people will never truly understand what it means to be a Gunner or for that matter a crew member on the Fabulous Four Engine Fighter, but this book does an awesome job of giving you a glimpse into that world. To the Author, Mr Noecker, thank you for writing this and telling your story with the 16th SOS. You are a true American hero and patriot, thank you for leading the way and creating the first chapters in the history of fix-winged side firing Gunships. I for one will always be eternally grateful. "Gun Ready" - lets get some!