On August 5, 1964, US Navy aircraft kicked off US air operations in the Vietnam War, launching from the carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation to strike North Vietnamese targets.
The Navy attack formations were composed of two aircraft: the jet-powered Douglas A-4 Skyhawk that had entered service eight years earlier, and the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, a piston-engine propeller plane. Originally intended for service in World War II, the A-1 first flew as the Allies closed in on Nazi Germany but didn't enter service until 1946.
Even as the world's major militaries embraced jets, the Skyraider held its own. It continued fighting well into the 1970s and has gone down as one of the best attack aircraft of all time.
