This is a very large site with images from Laos and the Ho Chi Minh trail as it is today. Much is back to jungle but the villages and the choke points such as river fords and the Lao people are still there.
The author and photographer is Don Duvall who travels the trail by motorbike - also leads Ho Chi Minh Trail bike tours and has compiled this very extensive album of life on and near the Trail today.
The is the other end of those thousands of combat misssions Takhli pilots flew. And they were just the tip of the spear - thousands fo our Airmen launched and maintained the combat aircraft.
I briefed weather for the combat crews and see a lot of very familiar names like Ban Laboy Ford, Tchepone, Savanaket, Xiang Khoungville, Ban Karai - names you heard too from crews and Intel and Photo Squadron.
Pretty interesting. Tere is some mild anti-US propaganda included in some of the captions but mostly it's a well done tour of the small county that was focus of much of what went on at Takhli -especially in the latter part of the air war.
Kids with metal detectors looking for buried metal is pretty frightening since a lot of UXO or Unexploded Ordinance is still sitting there 50 years later and still dangerous.
My best to everyone for 2017. If you're wading thru the VA Claims system - good luck and to all good health and be proud of your time and service at Takhli.
All the Thai bases paid an important role - Takhli right up there at the top of the list with our thousands of combat missions and the many KIA, MIA and POW crew members who made a one way trip off the end of our runway. Hand Salute and a job well done to all of you.
Dick Williams
Moderator
Base Weather 69-70
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