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A Lao American and women-led movement advocating for families in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam to live on bomb-free land. 🙏🏼

On Thursday 24 September we welcome Legacies of War to Funky Lam Kitchen — a Lao American, women-led organization working so that families in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam can live on bomb-free land.

An evening of stories, Lao food, and a chance to support work that is quite literally life-saving.

Free entry. RSVP by DM to Funky Lam Kitchen — just tell us how many you are.

3rd floor, The Warehouse Talat Noi, 867 Charoen Krung Rd, Bangkok.

#FunkyLamKitchen #LegaciesOfWar #Laos #Bangkok #TalatNoi LaoFood

$He wasn’t dropping bombs. He was dropping minds. This rare ground photo shows Dick Saunders of the 606th Special Operations Squadron U-10 PSYOP section in Laos, holding a freshly prepared leaflet bundle. Wrapped in cord with a squib igniter on top, designed to explode open in mid-air the second it left the aircraft. These weren’t random papers. Inside were CIA produced surrender leaflets featuring the Erawan, the three-headed elephant under the white parasol. The ancient symbol of Laotian nationalism and unity, straight from the Royal Lao flag. On the back: instructions for safe surrender, promises of good treatment, and a quiet appeal to come home instead of dying for someone else’s war. The 606th’s U-10 Super Couriers flew low and slow out of Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, “over the fence”, into denied areas. Leaflet drops. Loudspeaker missions. “Loudmouth” runs. Tiny planes, massive psychological impact. Part of the larger unseen campaign to fracture enemy morale, encourage defections, and remind Pathet Lao and NVA troops that the “Land of a Million Elephants” still had a voice. Dick Saunders didn’t fly the missions, he prepped the weapons. The bundles. The squibs. The quiet, dirty work that made the shadow war possible. Rare photos like this come from the veterans themselves (shoutout to Lt Col Philip L. French and the old Air Commando archives where Saunders contributed his pictures and stories). This is the covert side of the Secret War most histories skip. The man. The bundle. The elephant that fought without firing a shot. Drop your favorite unsung PSYOP story or Air Commando tale below. Tag someone who lives for the gray history. #covertcargochronicles #SecretWar #Laos #psyop #militaryaviation$

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When a USAF General Called Them ‘Mexican Banditos’…

A visiting general saw the Ravens at Long Tieng and was appalled by their civilian clothes, cowboy hats, mustaches, and heavily armed appearance.

He called them a ragged band of Mexican banditos.
The pilots didn’t argue.
They posed for this photo.

These were the Forward Air Controllers of America’s most secret war in Laos, Project 404, the Steve Canyon Program. Sheep-dipped pilots flying unmarked O-1 Bird Dogs and T-28 Trojans low and slow over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, marking targets for strikes the world wasn’t supposed to know about.

They operated in the gray with almost zero oversight while Air America dropped propaganda leaflets alongside rice bags. Their full story stayed classified for years.

This photo became legend, the perfect symbol of their maverick spirit.

Tag someone who needs to know the Ravens existed.

Drop your favorite secret war fact or story below.
Save it.

#Ravens #secretwars #LongTieng #ForwardAirControllers #covertcargochronicles

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See my stories for the 🔗 for the full article - no paywall 💕 #serakoulabdara #legaciesofwar #refugeeday

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Legacies of War

@legaciesofwar