This summer we've been to Thailand and spent a few days with our friends in Udon Thani, as the city is called these days. The local airport is large and well-built, apparently a former military airbase. Other than that, the area is pretty much the backyard of Thailand, local people as just as (if not more) friendly as everywhere in the conutry, but visiting foreigners are still few and far between.

My understanding is that back in the 1960-70s the conditions were really primitive, with hardly eny electricity available in the area. The US Military coming with their Phantoms, the organisation and the infrastrcuture must have felt like visitors from another planet. I've been looking for traces of US presence at Udorn, but all I could find was a chapter in the guidebook. It was difficult to get a closer idea for how large force was stationed at the base, or when/how it operated. But apparently it is the US airbase that put the city on the map and contributed to it's later economic development.

Regards to your dad. I'll be looking forward to your progress on this model.

/Martin