American involvement in the Vietnam War, stretching back to post-World War II support of our French ally in southeast Asia, reached a dramatic peak in 1968. That year, pilots who were trained at Sumter's Shaw Air Force Base proudly completed this banner to commemorate and celebrate their contribution to the war. The names on the banner--not unlike the names on the banner other South Carolinians had made to commemorate their actions in the Mexican War (see image 68 in "An Illustrated History of South Carolina, 1550-1988")--list the places in which their unit had seen action.
Courtesy of the Sumter County Museum Archives.
