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A photoionization detector for vibrationally excited nitrogen has been used to obtain the rate of quenching by atomic oxygen in the temperature range of 300 to 723K. These measured coefficients together with higher temperature data obtained elsewhere with different experimental methods indicate that the VT process in the N2 - O system is anomalously efficient over the range of 300 to 4500K and has only a moderate temperature dependence. This result has important consequences in the upper atmosphere where the effect of an efficient VT process involving N2 and O is to hold the atmospheric N2 vibrational temperature at or very near the ambient kinetic temperature, which is in agreement with the results of recent rocket probe experiments. (Modified author abstract)