Recon Plane Crash Vietnam War

  Description

This picture captures the aftermath of a plane crash involving an L19 reconnaissance  plane.  The primary mission of the light reconnaissance aircraft on the Vietnam battlefield was to identify military targets and to communicated coordinates for positioning of air strikes by fighter bombers as well as helicopter gun ships on enemy positions.  These single engine light aircraft often flew at extremely low altitudes to spot targets and as a strategy of avoiding large munitions retaliation, but this left them vulnerable to direct small arms fire from enemy ground troops.