In support of an official event 

The Museum will be closed Sunday, May 25
In addition, the Fourth Hangar will be closed Saturday, May 24

Access to the Presidential Gallery will be limited from May 15 to June 5
 

Fact Sheet Alphabetical List

Fact Sheet Search

  • Ranch Hand Insignia and other items

    InsigniaThe Ranch Hand insignia was designed in 1962 by Capt. Alan Kidd and Lt. John Hodgin, and it contains several elements of the Ranch Hand tradition. The symbol in the middle is the Chinese character for purple. The brown stripe on a green field represents a defoliated strip of jungle. Yellow

  • Navigating Ranch Hand

    Flawless navigation was critical to mission success. If the wrong spot was sprayed, friendly areas would be damaged and crops destroyed. The items displayed in this case belonged to Capt. Harry Nehrig, a Ranch Hand navigator during 1968-1969. Click here to return to Down in the Weeds: Ranch Hand.

  • Maj. Ralph Dresser

    Maj. Ralph Dresser was the Ranch Hand commander from the fall of 1965 to the fall of 1966. During this time, the number of spray aircraft doubled and enemy reaction to the defoliation program increased considerably. Dresser took an active hand in command by regularly leading spray missions, and he

  • Down in the Weeds: Ranch Hand

    The dense jungle in Southeast Asia allowed the enemy to ambush vehicles and boats on transportation routes, creep close to stage attacks on bases, move men and materiel and hide their own camps. Ranch Hand crews denied the enemy this cover by spraying herbicides in key areas. To accomplish the

  • Dirty Thirty

    In April 1962, 30 U.S. Air Force pilots were sent to fly as advisors in the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) 43rd Air Transport Group. Their arrival permitted the VNAF to release some of its own experienced pilots to form new units for its rapidly-expanding air arm.This small group of Americans

  • South Vietnam: The Advisory Years, 1961-1965

     INTO THE FRAYPreventing South Vietnam from falling to communism was the United States' key goal in the Southeast Asia War. The 1954 Geneva Peace Accords called for a temporary division of North and South Vietnam at the 17th Parallel, with a unification election to be held in 1956. At the time,

  • Tonkin Gulf Resolution: Authority for War

    The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was Congress' permission for the president to use force in response to North Vietnamese hostile action. It became a turning point in American involvement in Southeast Asia.On Aug. 2, 1964, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the destroyer USS Maddox 28 miles off

  • The Southeast Asia War: Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

    A product of the Cold War, the Southeast Asia War (1961-1973) began with communist attempts to overthrow non-communist governments in the region. United States participation in the Southeast Asia War resulted from the policy of "containment," which aimed to prevent communism from expanding beyond

  • SUU-7 Dispenser

    The SUU-7 was a device used to release hundreds of small bomblets over a target. Externally mounted under an aircraft, the SUU-7 ejected the bomblets through openings in the rear (the SUU-7 itself was not dropped). This SUU-7 is loaded with 1.75-lb. BLU-3/B antipersonnel bomblets for use against

  • SA-2 Surface-to-Air Missile

    Developed in the mid-1950s, the V-750 Dvina was the first effective Soviet surface-to-air missile. The Soviets used it to shoot down Gary Powers' U-2 over the USSR in 1960 and Maj. Rudolph Anderson's U-2 over Cuba in 1962. The missile was better known by the NATO designation SA-2 Guideline. The