Ghostriders 1976-1995: "Invictus" Combat History of the AC-130 Spectre Gunship, Iran, El Salvador, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia

by William Walter

Resistance is futile. You can run, but you’ll only die tired.

The AC-130 Gunship was quickly developed in 1968 to provide fire support for ground forces in Vietnam. Twenty-eight C-130 cargo aircraft were converted into AC-130s for night attack operations. The AC-130 was crude, ugly, ad hoc, and detested by many within the USAF…but it worked, and it worked well. Likewise, AC-130 crews were deemed unruly “biker gangs,” but performed magnificently in every major US military operation from 1976 to 1995. Most of these combat operations were cloaked in secrecy, but records once classified for up to twenty years have now been opened. Based on this newly declassified information and hundreds of interviews with SOF veterans, Ghostriders 1976-1995 is the first authoritative historical account of the AC-130 operations, written by an AC-130 Aerial Gunner who participated in every AC-130 combat operation from 1980 through 1994.

496 pages, Hardcover

Published May 31, 2022

Reviews

[RONBURGY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read and lots of information that I never knew about the AC 130 missions and operations.

[JennaMarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this especially because my dad was a pilot on the AC-130s when I was a kid so it was interesting reading about what he (and others) were going through at the time.