Description: It was a brave man who flew into the Vietnam war in a small plane like this Cessna O-2 Skymaster. A total of 532 were built for the US Air Force, and used mostly in the "forward air controller" role, hence the lettering on top of the wings of this one. Forward air controllers flew low and slow over Vietnam looking for enemy activity, which often meant hearing themselves being shot at. They would then call in air support which was lurking close at hand, fire rockets to mark the enemy position with smoke, and let the big boys pour in some serious armament. At times O-2s did carry offensive weaponry like small gatling guns or explosive rockets, but some poor pilots were forced to fly with nothing more than loudspeakers and pamphlet distribution equipment in the pointless exercise called "psychological warfare". The O-2 might have been a bad plane to go to war in, but with two engines it was better than the single engine O-1 Bird dog, whose pilots were in a lot of trouble if that engine stopped working.