Pictures of the vietnam war?

[Rossuk]

Hi

I am studying photography and writing an essay on the Vietnam war. Just wondering if any one was there and photographed any of it?

Thanks

 

[namvet]

Hi

I am studying photography and writing an essay on the Vietnam war. Just wondering if any one was there and photographed any of it?

Thanks

best i can do. i was with the USN

link

 

[April]

The comment that spurred others to come forth with their thanks as well as sharing...I'll re-add the link that namvet (TY namvet) posted...

George Martin•3 years ago−






I am A Vietnam Veteran, but I hid this fact from people for several years after the war, because I was caught up in the National shame of being involved in the War in Vietnam.

I did not want friends to know how I spent a couple years of my life facing my mortality and being involved with what so many protested as an American mistake.

When my own service, the United States Air Force, acted as if we should hide the fact of our involvement by ordering us to not wear our uniforms off base, I was convinced it was a shameful thing I had been involved in, even though it was my country that ordered me and over a million others to go to Southeast Asia and defend something.

I never gave it much thought whether it was right or wrong to fight in that war. My country sent me, and because I was a member of the military I went.

When my country abandoned the South Vietnamese I was ashamed of that. I was ashamed of the way the United States ran helter-skelter from the friends they had promised to support.

I was ashamed at the lack of support our country showed us. We were never given the support that America had given its military throughout history. It was as if it were our fault that things did not go right for this country that had gotten us involved and did not have the resolve to finish what it had started.

It is now forty years after my tours in Vietnam, and somewhere along the way my thinking changed in the way I see my personal involvement.

The pride started creeping into my thinking as we, the Vietnam Veterans, started the movement to get a Memorial, "The Wall". Since Americans and our own government abandoned us, we would pay for and build our own Memorial.

The war protesters, the draft dodgers could go on with their lives after Jimmy Carter gave them amnesty.

So, our lives could go on too, even if we only recognized our accomplishments without support of the American people. I started seeing other Vietnam Veterans as Brothers, and shared what only close brothers could share.

I began also, to think of the war as a test, a rite of passage that my Father's generation went through in World War Two, and my Brother went through in Korea. I know now, that had I not gone to Vietnam when I was called, I would wonder all my life if I had what it takes to be an American, called on to do a duty for my country. I don't have to wonder. I served. I went when called.

I have spoken with many men since the war, who did not serve in the military. Many say they wished they had gone. They feel a part of their life passed by while they watched from the sidelines.

They will carry with them to the grave an unanswered question that I was fortunate enough to have answered. Would I serve if called by my country? I did and I survived, and now I walk with my head held high.

When I meet other Vietnam Veterans I immediately feel a bond, a Brotherhood that only we, who have been there, can understand. My life would be missing a large part if I did not have this comradeship with my fellow Veterans.

Some say, "it's been over forty years ago, forget about it." I am here to tell you that you can not forget the defining episode in your life that sets you apart from others.

How can you forget something as life changing an experience as the War in Vietnam was for so many American men?

Some who are old enough to remember where they were and what they were doing when John F. Kennedy was shot, or when Martin Luther King was shot can no more forget that, than a Vietnam Veteran can forget about the combat in which he was involved so long ago.

How can someone who did not experience it, and does'nt know if they would have gone had they been called, tell Veterans to get over it and forget it?

I wore the uniform of The United States Air Force for 26 years. I went when called to serve in Vietnam For that I stand tall! I am proud. I am a Vietnam Veteran!

George Martin, Da Nang RVN

First Tour -1967 - 1968

Second Tour - 1969 - 1970

I know this may be a bit OT considering the OP just needed pix...but I feel compelled to post it.

Photos: A Look Back at the Vietnam War on the 35th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon - Plog

 

[waltky]

Revisiting Viet Nam...

Return to Vietnam
6 April 2013 - I have to confess to something of an obsession with the Vietnam War, which most likely stems from the fact that pictures of the conflict began my lifelong love of photography. McCullin, Faas, Page, Huet, Burrows and so on: all those great photographers' work then spurred further interest in the war itself.

So whenever I stumble upon a website showing some pictures from the conflict, I usually can't resist and click to see what's on offer. This week I did just that and found the work of Charlie Haughey, who it turns out was a rifleman with the 25th Infantry Division who served in Vietnam from March 1968 to May the following year.

Haughey was commissioned by his colonel to take photographs of the battalion for Army and civilian newspapers. The officer said: "You are not a combat photographer; this is a morale operation. If I see photos of my men in the papers, doing their job with honour, then you can do what you like in Vietnam."

An RTO (radio telephone operator) guides a Chinook delivering a slingload of materials and supplies at Fire Support Base Pershing, near Dau Tieng

The rifleman was stationed near Cu Chi and was part of Alpha Company, for whom he walked point or flank for 63 days. "On point, you work with the guy behind you. I didn't get to know people very well; we weren't like the band of brothers. It didn't pay to get to know people - we knew each other based on where we were from, or we had nicknames. Collins was from Chicago. He and I worked really well together. When we were on point together, I was up front, responsible for everything from the waist down - trip wires, booby traps, spider holes. He walked behind me, responsible for everything from the waist up. He flat out saved my life at least once, just from a little whistle or click or something."

Charlie's first response to this photo: "It was not uncommon to find anyone with a head bowed for a moment - more often when we were heading out than when we were coming back. Interesting that he has a flak jacket, he's taking precautions on both sides of the fence. M16, a steel pot, a flak jacket, and a prayer."

His pictures of the unit have not been seen until now, having spent four decades in boxes in his home. Last year a chance meeting brought the negatives out into the open and eventually to a digital scanner with the work being catalogued by a team of volunteers. The work is now on show at the ADX Gallery in Portland, Oregon, in the north-west US. The 28 prints are displayed in handmade frames, made by Charlie, who is now a retired carpenter.

MORE BBC News - Return to Vietnam

 

[MaryL]

Not sure where to go with this, because it's not sticking to the original posters' request. I knew a coworker back in the late seventies whom served in Vietnam. He carried with him a cache of instamatic photos he took during his tour of service. He shared them with me one time, well; I still don't know what the hell to think. A group of those photos showed a man in the process of being beaten to death. His squad captured a Vietnamese fellow they thought was VC or at least in collusion with the North. They tied this man to a post in the center of some nameless village and beat him to death. Those pictures were evidence of a war crime, and I never said a thing. I am sure there was more to the picture than met the eye. But I can't get past all the implications. I haven't shared that experience with anyone. Not sure it matters anymore.

 

[Gracie]

Most of the guys I know who served in Nam and came back alive....don't talk about it. The haunted looks on their faces was enough to get the drift.

 

[koshergrl]

My 5 uncles didn't talk about the Korean or the Second World wars either. One was a Japanese POW...he weighed 98 lbs when he came home, he was 6' tall.

War is war is war.

 

[P F Tinmore]