Strike in Progress.

I believe this photo was from the collection of Colonel Craig Elliot. He snapped the shot just as a bomb exploded. The smoke above likely is from earlier bombs.  Some might be from the original White Phosphorous marking rocket.  However, the smoke from marking rockets normally was whiter and starts with a smaller cloud that wouldn’t increase to that size. The jungle-covered karst was a honeycombed with caves that were used extensively by the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao.  With no roads in sight, this target is more likely in the area we called Cricket West, which was much closer to the border with Thailand than the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

  
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