Vietnamese paratroopers jump from USAF C-123 transports during Operation Phi Hoa II, a tactical air-ground envelopment strike against Viet Cong in the Tay Ninh Province of South Vietnam.

Sixteen C-123’s dropped more that 840 parachutists in two minutes after Vietnamese Air Force tactical fighters and bombers had worked over the area. A smoke bomb, dropped minutes before the assault, marks the drop zone.

Photo taken: March 1963