Warbird Information Exchange

Please take a moment and say a prayer for this Spooky crew shot down on Christmas Eve 1965.

Dennis L. Eilers
To this name there is a face
To this face there is a story
To this story there is a sacrifice

This is the story of Dennis L. Eilers. Dennis was born on December 6th 1938. Growing up on a farm in Tipton, IA. Dennis dreamed of one day becoming a pilot, while at college in Cedar Rapids he joined the ROTC. After graduation he began his career as a pilot in the Air Force. Dennis married and had two sons.
Dennis arrived in Vietnam on November 3rd 1965. He was assigned to the 4th Air Commando Squadron at Da Nang in South Vietnam. On December 24th 1965 (Christmas Eve) Dennis and the rest of his crew boarded AC-47 # 45-1120. The call sign for this mission would be “SPOOKY 21” the mission was an armed reconnaissance in Laos. Takeoff was at 07:28 in the morning, they were due to return to Da Nang by 13:30 hours, at about 10:50 am the aircraft broadcast “MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, SPOOKY 21” on the UHF emergency frequency. This was heard by two other aircraft. After two days of searching, the search for SPOOKY 21 was suspended. No sign of the plane or crew had been found.
In July of 2001 a team was sent to the area where SPOOKY 21 was shot down. They found some parts of the plane but as of now have not recovered any of the crew.
The Investigation continues………

The Crew of SPOOKY 21

Pilot Col. Derrel B. Jeffords
Co-Pilot Cpt. Dennis L. Eilers
Navigator Maj. Joseph Christiano
Flt. Engineer Tsgt. W. Kevin Colwell
Gunner Msgt. Larry C. Thornton
Gunner Ssgt. Arden K. Hassenger

Thank you for reminding us of their sacrifice...

A link below to the loss of Spooky 21 and some nice info on two of the crew members. Also some info on other Gunship losses...

http://www.ac47-gunships.com/ac47_miakia.htm

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