Douglas A-1 Skyraider, tail code 'AD', serial marked AF 52 332. Twenty years old by the time this photograph was taken, the propeller-driven Skyraider was retained by the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s for the qualities jets could not match: it could loiter for hours, carry an enormous and varied ordnance load on the ranks of underwing racks seen here, and work low and slow over a target. Those same qualities made it the aircraft of choice for the 'Sandy' combat search and rescue escort mission over Southeast Asia. The saw-toothed camouflage demarcation, the paper arming tags on the empty ejector racks, and the mooring cables mark an aircraft at rest between sorties. From the A-1 reference files of Lt. Donald L. Engebretsen, who flew the type with the OLAA detachment at Da Nang. Project: 218822