While destroying NVA trucks in Laos on the night of March 2, 1971, pilot Ed Holley’s 13-crew-member AC-130 gunship detected the launch of an SA-2 guided surface-to-air missile. As the SAM tracked the plane at a speed approaching Mach 3, with the aid of a crewman hanging off the aft ramp watching the missile, Holley evaded it by putting the four-engine, 155,000-lb. aircraft through a modified “split-S” maneuver, maintaining positive gravity throughout. Soon after resuming his mission, two more SA-2s were launched at Holley’s plane, which he then took through the same grueling maneuver—again recovering.