08 30th, 2007
24 Comments
Words: 625
Hot Air Force Babe a Gunner on an AC-130
Categories: 800HighTech, Military News, Random
Tags: AC-130, Afghanistan, Air-Force, Aircraft, Ammunition, Aviation, Babe, Combat, Defense, Fighting-Force, Iraq, Iraq-War, Military, Military-Buddy, Military-News, Military-OperationHot Air Force Girl Gunning an AC-130 Spectre in Iraq and Afghanistan
The AC-130 gunship is a heavily-armed ground attack airplane. The basic airframe is manufactured by Lockheed, and Boeing is responsible for the conversion into a gunship and for aircraft support. It is a variant of the C-130 Hercules transport plane. The AC-130 Gunship II superseded the AC-47 Gunship I in Vietnam.
Well, the Spectre crew members have never been this HOT! Vanessa Dobos AC-130 Gunner
Mufasta Ali and Bin Ladin Better Watch Their Tails!
Vanessa Dobos is a gunner on a USAF AC-130 Gunship. She has seen action in Iraq and Afghanistan. She likes long walks on the beach, men who are not afraid to cry and puppies.
Her dislikes include feed tray stoppages, tracer flareout of her NVGs and premature fixed-wing strikes scattering her high-value targets.
As a present day modern aerial gunner, Airman 1st Class Vanessa Dobos has little in common with gunners from World War I. Though Dobos did train to fire a massive machine gun from the deck of a HH-60 helicopter, perhaps her greatest distinction is the fact she is a woman and the Air Force’s first female aerial gunner.
While her job as an enlisted aircrew member on the HH-60 helicopter may be different, Dobos is remarkably similar to her predecessors. She wants to fly.
Unexpected start
Raised in the small town of Valley View, Ohio, her interest in the military was sparked by her father.
Described by Dobos as a history buff, her dad talked a lot about America’s past heroes while they often watched classic war movies. “He instilled in me so much respect for our country’s past heroes”, she said.
Near the end of her senior year in high school, she found herself talking to a recruiter. She told him she wouldn’t consider a job if it wasn’t flying-related.
I had no intention of joining, she said. I didn’t realize how few enlisted aircrew jobs there were.
Nothing appealed to Dobos until another recruiter mentioned a career field that had just opened to new recruits 1A7X1, or aerial gunner.
Just the title caught my eye, she said, and to her parents’ surprise, as well as her own, she signed up that day.
Under pressure
A few months later, Dobos found herself in basic military training and later at the basic aerial gunner course at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. She was not aware she was on her way to becoming the Air Force’s first female gunner until midway through training.
“I went from being another airman in the crowd to someone who people would always be watching and analyzing,” she said. In some ways, “I was afraid that people in the helicopter world were already prepared to be disappointed in me. I figured there were some people with hard feelings about a girl in the job. I was determined not to let them down.”
And she didn’t.
As a member of the 66th Rescue Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Dobos mans a .50-caliber machine gun aboard an HH-60 Pave Hawk. Her main role is caring for the guns and other defensive systems. However, she’s also responsible for briefing passengers and helping other crew members with the weapons, defensive systems, hoist and other equipment.
It’s the job her predecessors from World Wars I and II performed as they flew in their bombers through the flak-filled skies swarming with enemy fighters. It’s the job she’s prepared to perform in her helicopter during combat rescue missions while receiving enemy ground fire and dodging rocket-propelled grenades. But that’s not a reasonable comparison, according to Dobos.
I really love my job, she said. I enjoy learning about the history of my career field, but I don’t compare myself to gunners from [World Wars I and II]. Those men deserve a lot more credit than I do.
2nd Lt. Chuck Widener
Airman Magizine
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24 Responsesto “Hot Air Force Babe a Gunner on an AC-130”
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She is a gunner on a HH-60, not the AC-130:
http://www.af.mil/news/airman/1103/gunssb1.html
Thanks for bringing this point up as I did not include it in the article. Airman Magizine did say she was a gunner on a HH-60 Helicopter. However, the fact is she trained as a gunner on a HH-60 Helicopter. The picture above was taken on August 7, 2002 at Kirtland Air Force Base and she is indeed posing inside an AC-130 Spectre Gunship. A 20mm Vulcan Cannon is beside her. Either way, the main fact still remains, she is the U.S. Air Force’s first aerial gunner and she is sexy!
Can’t argue her sex appeal, but that’s not a 20mm Vulcan she’s posing with, it’s a 7.62 mm minigun, probably from Dillon Aero. Similar function, much smaller round. I just want a nickel for every marriage proposal “The Real Miss America” gets from this publicity!!!!!
Vanessa I am very proud of you,keep up the good work and thanks for fighting for our country.Former Marine.
Thank God for young people like this. We need more young’uns with this kind of conviction. I hope she gets married some day and passes those genes on to the next generation. In an America full of fat, clueless, video-gaming , completely unguided kids, she is hope for our future.
I’m proud that she is going to be protecting my brother & other friends that are going Iraq & Afghanistan in Jan of 08! Thanks for being the first & hopefully not the last!! Ms Dobos I hope you & your family has a wonderful Christmas & a Very Happy New
Years!
Love Ya!
Dave
Thats a M134D 7.62 (.308) dillon aero not a 20mm vulcan.
And its the side of a chopper. 7.62 is no good from up in a spectre.
Ven – your awesome. you make us proud!
We’re all so proud of you Vanessa. You need to be on the poster “Uncle Sam Wants YOU!”
I don’t know you Vanessa but I do remember a time up in northern Iraq when an AC130 made the difference for my platoon. Thank you for what you are doing. Sincerely.
The Gun is not like the SUU-11 GE Mini-Gun used in AC-47 ‘Puff’ aircraft in NAM. The hole in the side of the Aircraft doesn’t look like an AC-130 ‘Spectre’ aircraft. Someone please call the Lady Gunner and she can tell us the real story.
GUNZ 4th. Air Commando Pleiku RVN 1965-66
Wow! I never knew it could sound so exciting!
I always thought I could never join because I was to afraid to die, but when I read this, That feeling of dying fades… Because I’m Dying for my country! and It’s something I can live to tell my kids in the future that I did something extreme and fascinating!
Thank you!
I’m really glad I came across this!.
Sakura.
I commend her for her service! Having read two or three articles about this picture, I might be able to shed some light. The picture was taken with her in the left window of an Air Force Blackhawk helicopter (I know, I am now an Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot.) The gun is indeed a 7.62mm minigun. I know this because I was in the Air Force for 4 years as a mechanic and worked on the MH-53 Pavelows. From what I can gather she now flies on AC-130 Gunships.
She is nice.
She is authentic.
She is romantic.
She can hold a minigun.
Enough for me.
She is sitting next to a minigun. Probably in .308 caliber. The comment about her sitting next to a 20MM Vulcan is incorrect. The Vulcan is a much larger version of the minigun.
And the aircraft is definitely not a C-130 as the guns are not mounted this way on that aircraft. She is in all likelihood sitting in a helicopter.
But hey. It’s a picture of a sexy woman sitting next to a sexy weapon! Nice!
Im glad to find out that this article can motivate people to join the Air Force, but this article is also motivating me to to become the best future Airman i can be.
so there we all were sitting at maloneys having a few too many beers. i was in the middle of initial qual for Pave Low and vanessa was back in town for some kind of training. i was running my drunk mouth about how Pave Low was way cooler than anyone else when vanessa kinda grins and says “Yeah well how many F#%&*ng combat hours do YOU have, dude???”. the well deserved teasing lasted about a year……..PAVE LOW LEADS!
@Tailsupcom
Awesome story. Vanessa seems like a helluva woman.
One day you will learn, that these criminals of your former government tricked you.
Hopefully you will learn it !
oh but i HAVE learned it. and unless youve been there to learn it too you should keep your smug, unwanted, unprecedented comments to yourself. just my $0.02, fella.
I apologize for letting that comment from “John Doe” get by. Obviously he doesn’t even have the guts to list his own name. The comment came out of Ulm, Germany.
BTW…she is not the “first A.F. aerial gunner”. I was and still am a proud member of the Air Force Gunners Association! I was an aerial gunner in the B-52G. Ther have been many more before her. She is the FIRST “female” aerial gunner. Glad to see her out there!!!
She had better watch her tail or some Devil Grunt’s gonna get her.
im really glad to see a pretty woman out there i just turned nineteen and im really striving to work with the beautiful ac 130 im finishing school now and have to go to mechanical,electrical courses and im not sure wat else i would like to hear about how to get in and wat i got to do. thank u
Is she already married?