DOD Evasion Chart EVC 250-5 (S.E.A) [and] DOD Evasion Chart EVC 250-6 (S.E.A)

An aviator’s ‘escape map’, issued to bomber crews during the Vietnam War.

This double-sided Evasion Chart covers the narrow “waist” of Indochina, centered on the hotly contested border between North and South Vietnam (ironically known as the Demilitarized Zone). This second edition was published in 1966 by the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Center (ACIC) and issued to aircrews flying over hostile territory during the Vietnam War. Printed on durable vinyl, such charts could also serve as a ground sheet, water carrier, or signal panel if a crew member was shot down.

A base map shows settlements, terrain, military infrastructure, and the transportation network, with a key in the margin explaining the symbols. Blue overprinting adds hydrographic detail (including marshland), as well as a reference grid for radio communication with rescue forces.

As the Location Diagram shows, ACIC issued six sheets in this 1:250,000 series covering North Vietnam, northern South Vietnam, and much of Laos, supplemented by a smaller-scale 1:500,000 series extending south through Thailand and Cambodia. This example, with EVC 250-5 on one side and 250-6 on the other, covers the central portion of the theater, at the heart of the air war and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Points of interest include heavily bombed targets in North Vietnam (Vinh, Dong Hoi, and Quang Khe), Mu Gia Pass (site of the first B-52 strike on North Vietnam in April 1966), Khe Sanh, the DMZ, Quang Tri Province (scene of Operation Hastings), and the Laotian panhandle along the Mekong, a center of clandestine CIA operations.