Tropic Moon III B-57G aircraft with FLIR and LLLTV in nose
Operation Shed Light was a crash development project in aerial warfare, initiated in 1966 by the United States Air Force to increase the ability to accurately strike at night or in adverse weather. During the 1960s the United States military worked hard to interdict the movement of men and materiel along the Ho Chi Minh trail. The North Vietnamese were experts in the use of weather and darkness to conceal their movement, and understanding the superiority of American air power put their skills immediately to good use. US forces seeking to impede the steady flow of supplies attempted to locate largely static targets during the day with poor results.
The United States Air Force, focused toward nuclear weapons and delivery of such munitions against static strategic targets had spent little effort in expanding its tactical capabilities since the end of World War II. Operation Shed Light sought to rectify this by bringing together improved tactics and technology. The programs were subsequently centered on improved communication and navigation aids for all-weather and night flying, sensor equipment for seeing through clouds, foliage, and darkness, improved equipment and methods for target marking and battlefield illumination, and aircraft and tactics to utilize these developments. In the end, few of the programs would yield applicable results and most of the aircraft developed under its umbrella would largely fall into obscurity. The most applicable developments were those that could be mainstreamed such as the work done on navigation and communication and sensor equipment. (Full article...)
Image 1Dong Ho painting is a line of Vietnamese folk painting originating in Đông Hồ village (Song Hồ commune, Thuận Thành District, Bắc Ninh Province.
Image 3Hanging fishing nets in the Cu Đê River, just before it merges with Da Nang Bay
Image 4Hồ Chí Minh attended French Communist Congress in Marseilles in 1921 under the name Nguyễn Ái Quốc.
Image 5Water puppetry, lit. "Making puppets dance on water") is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century when it originated in the villages of the Red River Delta area of northern Vietnam.
... that cartoonist Trung Le Nguyen's graphic novel The Magic Fish is inspired by his experience as a child of Vietnamese immigrants to the United States?
... that Mongol general Uriyangkhadai invaded the territory of the Song dynasty in southern China by going through Tibet and Vietnam?
... that Nothgottes, a pilgrimage destination in the Rheingau since the 14th century, is a monastery of Cistercians from Vietnam?
... that Charles Larson became one of the first Americans to teach African literature, after working in Nigeria for the Peace Corps to avoid the Vietnam draft?
... that a monument in Moscow honoring North Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh has been nicknamed the "flying saucer monument" by locals?
The following are images from various Vietnam-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1Vietnam map of Köppen climate classification zones (from Geography of Vietnam)
Image 2In Chữ Quốc Ngữ, the word "tính" means "to ponder" or "figure out". (from Culture of Vietnam)
Image 319th-century manuscript of "Mysterious tales of the Southern Realm" (Vietnamese: Lĩnh Nam chích quái), a copy of 15th-century original tale. (from Culture of Vietnam)
Image 22A lantern procession during Mid-Autumn Festival (Tết Trung thu) in Vietnam, which is also celebrated as "Children's Festival". (from Culture of Vietnam)
Vietnam reports a record 454,197 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, including a record 225,693 new cases in Hanoi, which is the highest single-day total in any municipality or province. (VnExpress)
Vietnam lifts its COVID-19-related curbs on international passenger flights with no limitation on the number of flights in order to restore the travel to pre-pandemic level. (Al-Jazeera)