On February 24, 1969, Levitow was asked to fill in for the regular loadmaster on an armed AC-47 call sign "Spooky 71". It was Airman Levitow's job to set the ejection and ignition timer controls on Mark 24 magnesium flares and pass them to the gunner for deployment. These flares were metal canisters long that would burn at 4,000 degrees, illuminate with the intensity of two million candlepower and burn for two and a half to three minutes. "Spooky 71" was flying night missions near the Tan Son Nhut Air base area when Long Binh came under attack.