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Message:: [QUOTE="longnine009, post: 3756197, member: 1886"]Pleiku AF Base: Cunningham  VN 3890e, plated brass, 2.2 grams 18mm.It's the proverbial fish scale. Same both sides. Pleiku Air Force Base was a joint Base operated and maintained by the USAF.The base was also home to USAF Air Commando Squadrons. I posted before about them in reference to the Pleiku Air Force open mess token. They were busy people. Their greatest duty seems to have been Skyraider missions against the Ho chi Minh trail. I don't believe  the strategic importance of the Ho chi Minh trail was ever lost on anyone in that war. The North poured as much into keeping the trail open as we did trying to shut it down.It was a big job. It ran through Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It was 50 miles wide in some spots, and covered in jungle canopy--double and triple canopy  in some areas. And of course it was riddled from end to end with the North's well known affinity for tunnels. There are numerous accounts, thousands possibly, of US forces closing in on NVA or Vietcong  when they suddenly "vanished" or "melted into the jungle." When Air Commandos we're not interdicting the Ho chi Minh trail, they flew cover missions for air rescue, flew AC-47's--the original "Puff the magic dragon" later replaced with AC-130 '''spookys." They also trained USAF and VNAF personnel in counter-insurgency, unconventional warfare, and psychological warfare. [ATTACH=full]1006886[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]