On Exhibit Since 2005 EC-47Q Electric Goon Airborne Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) and Reconnaissance
EC-47Q Electric Goon Facts Douglas EC-47Q Basics In the 1960s and 1970s, Goodfellow trained hundreds of intelligence, maintenance, communications, and crypto technicians to carry out Airborne Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) missions aboard specifically configured EC-47 aircraft that supported American and allied forces during the war in Southeast Asia. The enlisted "back-end" ARDF operators collaborated with the navigator to triangulate (fix) the location of enemy radio transmitters, then immediately passed those fix coordinates to supported ground units. This often sole-source ARDF intelligence was critical to targeting enemy positions for ground, air, and artillery attack, and occasionally saving friendly forces from ambush. Crew and Equipment Crew: Minimum Aircrew: 3 Backenders: 2-5 Equipment: Radio Direction Finding System Upgraded Navigator's Station Roles Airborne Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) Reconnaissance History of Goodfellow's EC-47Q Electric Goon Five buildings on base are named for Goodfellow-trained backenders lost on EC-47 missions. In recognition of this important chapter in base history and to honor those who served, Goodfellow reconfigured a C-47A as a replica EC-47Q, complete with elongated propeller shafts suggesting the more powerful R-2000 engines, a simulated radome, and about two dozen fabricated blade and other antennas that mimic the AN/ALR-38 ARDF system. Tail number 204 was the EC-47Q which flew the final U.S. Air Force ARDF mission of the Vietnam War on 15 May 1974. The Weyandt-Eddy Memorial Plaza was added to the static display and dedicated on March 25, 2022.