A row of Cobra attack helicopters sits ready at a forward airfield in Vietnam's Central Highlands, part of the staging and support apparatus for MACV-SOG's Operation Tailwind, a covert cross-border reconnaissance-in-force mission conducted in Laos in September 1970. Rugged perimeter defenses and muddy monsoon-season terrain underscore the austere, forward-deployed conditions under which such operations were launched. Project: 219487