THE CAPTURED T-28 THAT HUNTED A COVERT C-123 Before North Vietnam’s MiGs became famous, one of its first successful interceptions came from a captured American-built T-28 Trojan. The aircraft, No. 963, had originally served with the Royal Lao Air Force before being flown into North Vietnam by a defecting pilot. Hanoi repaired it and turned it into an improvised night interceptor. On 15–16 February 1964, radar picked up an aircraft approaching from Laos. Ground controllers vectored 963 toward the target until pilot Nguyễn Văn Ba spotted a twin engine transport in the dark. It was a C-123 Provider. Ba closed in and fired two bursts from the T-28’s 12.7 mm guns. The C-123 caught fire and crashed near the border. The strange part: Vietnamese accounts say the Provider was carrying a commando or agent team into North Vietnam. That places this little known shootdown inside the much larger clandestine air war already underway, CIA-backed infiltration missions, covert C-123 operations, and the transition toward what became MACV-SOG. The exact C-123, crew, and operator are still unclear. But the basic story is wild enough: A captured American trainer, guided by North Vietnamese radar, shoots down another American-built aircraft apparently carrying a covert infiltration team. No MiGs. No missiles. Just a stolen T-28 hunting in the dark. AIRCRAFT HISTORY JUNKY #AircraftHistoryJunky #T28Trojan #C123Provider #CovertAviation #VietnamWar #SecretWar #MACVSOG #CIA #AviationHistory