A Douglas A-1 Skyraider, number 628, lights its Wright R-3350 radial engine on a Southeast Asian ramp during the Vietnam War. White start-up smoke streams past a gloss black cowling painted with a sharkmouth, while a crew chief signals from the right and a second airman tends the ground cable at left. Loaded with a centreline fuel tank and wing ordnance, the piston-engine Skyraider could loiter for hours over a target — the quality that made it indispensable for close air support of MACV-SOG cross-border reconnaissance teams and for the 'Sandy' combat search and rescue mission. This aircraft appears repeatedly in the collection and was later a centrepiece of the reunion banner project for which this scan was made. Project: 219858