The 56th Air Commando Wing was made up of 1 squadron of A-26's, 3 squadrons of A-1's, C-123 Candlestick flare ships, a FAC Squadron, and oddest (to me) of all, my old friends the Navy with P2-V Neptunes. Under the control of both the 7th Air Force and the 13th Air Force, the base was highly classified. It also resulted in the odd patch at the upper left. Tucked away was another squadron of T-28's with bombs(?), some EC-47's with a forest of antennas, some Thai H-34's, and no 21st Helicopter Squadron.

Since I had beaten my unit in-country by at least a month, someone somewhere decided that the best thing to do was to assign me to the 456th Munitions Maintenance Squadron, Gun Shop. There I learned about the care and feeding of 50 call machine guns for the A-26 Invader, call sign NIMROD. Learned quite a bit about the care and feeding of the WWII machine guns, cut my hands constantly on the ammo chutes, learned about pre-Korean War vintage Lot-numbered ammo. When you open the wooden box and find white crystals or a liquid leaking out of the rounds, leave it alone and call EOD to make the pickup. Happened frequently. Working on the A-26 gave me a sound appreciation of the ability of the prop-driven bomber to go out night after night and work the Trail.