Photographed from the cockpit of an accompanying aircraft, a single Douglas A-1 Skyraider flies low along a white-sand barrier beach with surf on one side and a broad coastal lagoon on the other. Frames like this were taken casually on transit and range flights, and they capture something formal portraits do not: the working environment of a piston-engine attack squadron. A vertical red stain across the centre is a defect in the original transparency. The slide comes from a Vietnam-era collection scanned decades later for a Special Operations Association Reunion banner project. Project: 219858