Search results

(1 - 5 of 5)

Title: Portrait of an Older Vietnamese Man During the Battle of Hue, February 1968
Description: Portrait of an old Vietnamese man during the Battle of Hue, February 1968. Photo by Don McCullin Here is an interview with Don McCullin discussing his observations during the Tet Offensive: DON MCCULLIN, THE BATTLE OF HUE - FEBRUARY 1968: WOUNDED LIEUTENANT. The Colonel that I was with, his name was Myron Harrington, said to me, "This will be a 24-hour operation". Two weeks later and 70 men killed and a thousand casualties, the Marines took a bit of a beating. I came away from Hue, a much older, and a much wiser person than I went in because I didn't take my clothes off for 2 weeks. I didn't shave, I didn't wash, and I was living like an animal. With Delta company I was on the wall. And what happened was that the snipers were just cutting these people to pieces, and we couldn't see these snipers - like all snipers they are secret killers. This particular day, I was with a probing patrol of Marines and they got really badly hit and the actual lieutenant who was in charge of this patrol was hit - clipped in the throat - and he was also badly wounded in the thigh, he was immobile and couldn't move. So I crawled over to him and I said, "Look. I can't do much for you, but let me bandage your leg and let's get out of here, I'll help you." And he said, "No, I'm going to bring down fire on this position" and I said, "You must be crazy." The thing was, he was in very big shock and he was losing it -- or he'd lost it, really, and so I calmed him down. The things, events changed and the pressure came off of us, and thank god he didn't send that command to bring the artillery down on our own positions. But that's what men are like in war, they sometimes break up and they lose it. It's all about shock and it's all about being in war really. We have been through many of those days. The thing of course, is that we don't lose it. DON MCCULLIN - ON PHOTOGRAPHING THE VIETNAM WAR: We became war junkies. It was always at the expense of other people's lives. That wasn't right for us to get off on that, but we did it. And in many ways we went to Vietnam and we also raped the country, we changed our money on the black markets, we became famous photographers and doors opened for us more easily because we made a name in photography. But we always have to remember how we made that name. We made it at the expense of other people's suffering. We went to those places, we got a certain amount of excitement out of it, and even that was wrong because the worse it got, the more excited we got. Admittedly we were afraid - sometimes we occasionally paid the price in blood, from our own bodies. Well, if I have to think back about it -- first of all, it's done me a great deal of harm. It helped to ruin part of my life. My first marriage broke up, and also I started to get slightly off the rails. It affected my life and I was a very angry young man, I needed to test myself. But in the end it was an indulgence, because I didn't need to do that. What I've discovered in myself now, is that -- first of all I hate those photographs I took all those years, that is to say the photographs I have done in the past 10 or 15 years give me much more pleasure because they are about life, they are about the countryside, they are about the land, and the rivers, and the beauty of our planet and even that is under threat. What is left of my photography and my energy -- my body is refusing to climb hills or carry all of my equipment. But I still have the passion of photography. And I will exercise that passion until I am on my knees.
Subjects: military photography, military history, histories, stories, portraits, Tet Offensive, snipers, Wounded in action (WIA), stress, internal stress, combat, combat zones, battles, pressure, war photography, civilians, War
Local Identifier: 16-4604

Title: Stories in the Detail
Description: Paintings and drawings by Meredith Moecnch, Susan Beck, and Bonnie Sucec. Exhibition held in the Main Gallery space.
Subjects: Salt Lake Art Center, paintings, pamphlets, drawings, stories
Local Identifier: 14-0481

Title: Main Gate Guard at LZ English
Description: MP Hurst. main gate guard, LZ English, 1969. "Hurst on Main Gate Guard, LZ North English. Helo Pad is in the background. Choppers coming in would try to blow our guard shack over. They succeeded a couple of times. Charlie (Viet Cong) had set a bouncing betty (bounding mine) just behind Hurst. Fortunately, a grunt had come in that morning and spotted it. Hurst is awaiting EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). We are checking up on him and have our houseboy with us". Photo and comments by Jerry W. Colwell.
Subjects: land mines, mines, Military Police (MP), gates, gatehouses, guardhouses, security guards, guards, Landing Zone (LZ), army bases, air bases, military bases, soldiers, storytelling, stories, explosive and incendiary materials, Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD)
Local Identifier: 16-3300

Title: Pevy, of 4th Battalion, Wanted One Last Ride With His Buddy
Description: "This is actually taken at the MP Squad AO, LZ North English. Sergeant Bird is unhooking the antenna. Bill Barr (I believe) is driving, Terry Smith is working the radio, probably asking the main desk on LZ English, 'how ya read me?'. Ed Christman, sergeant on the main desk would reply, 'gotcha lima charlie!' Pevy, of 4th Battalion wanted one last ride with his buddy, Sergeant Bird. Bird was severely WIA in an early January 1970 mortar attack on LZ North English. That is the same attack in which Major Lewis, the XO was KIA. LZ English, Pevy DEROS'ing." Photo and comments by Jerry W. Colwell
Subjects: Executive Officer (XO), Killed In Action (KIA), Wounded in action (WIA), jeeps, radio, Landing Zone (LZ), army bases, stories, storytellers, storytelling, soldiers, Vietnam War, Vietnam, Military Police (MP), battalions
Local Identifier: 16-3283

Title: Vietnam Veteran, William Carr Jr., Remembers a Fellow Soldier
Description: Date: 10/24/2005 3:42:20 PM Eastern Daylight I regret to inform you of the recent death of former "Redcatcher," William Condon. "Billy," as we called him, was formerly a member of our unit, 3d Platoon, C Company, 2d Battalion, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (Old Guard), 199th Light Infantry Brigade (Separate), at Fort Benning and in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967. He was a member of Sergeant James Williston's squad. In case you did not know, he died this past summer of complications associated with a seizure, as I understand it, according to a woman who said she was his wife. Today at lunchtime, I called his home in Maine and a woman answered. I told her I was looking for William Condon; I had served with him in Vietnam. She said that her husband had died in either July or June of this year. (Sorry, I could not understand everything she said and I could not bring myself to question her too much about the details). Billy was a funny guy, as I remember him. Had a way of talking that amused me - anyway. A couple of things I will always remember about Billy. (1) He liked to sit down. I remember on one mission, we were searching .a village. Billy had a habit of sitting down a lot, or at least it seemed that way to me. So when I passed a Vietnamese "hooch" that apparently Billy had just finished searching and saw him sitting down on one of those mounds of hardened mud (you may recall the Vietnamese villagers slept on these in their houses,) I remarked (and I can recall it clear as day), "Billy, you are always sitting down," I said. "I'll bet if you ever get hit, you will get it sitting down." Just as I finished my sentence, I looked down and right beside Billy was a grenade. I don't know where it came from, it might even have been his, but I didn't wait to find out and neither did he. We assumed it had come from inside the mound, from a "spider hole," those mysterious holes in the ground that we use to throw grenades in to kill any Viet Cong that may have been hiding in them. Anyway, I yelled ".Look out Billy! grenade beside you!" and we both ran as fast away from that house and the grenade as we could get. We never knew if it exploded or not, but of course we were not going back to find out. (2). Another thing I remember about Billy was that he was always getting stuck in the knee high (sometimes waist-high) mud we always had to walk through in our combat missions in the rice paddies in the Delta of Vietnam. We would all be trudging through, pulling ourselves along and there would be Billy - dragging along slightly behind, with his buddy, Merrill Doyle. Usually, on average maybe once per mission, I recall, one of them would get stuck. Because of suction, or whatever, immobilizing their movements they could not walk. The unstuck member of the duo would have to help pull them out. Others of us in the squad would sometimes have to help, also. It's been almost 40 years since I saw him last and I don't recall more. I wish he could have attended one of our Redcatcher Association reunions. I called him about 7 or 8 years ago to get him to come, but he said he did not want to even talk about Vietnam at that point. Out of respect for his wishes, I never attempted to contact him again until today. Now I'm thinking maybe I should have called sooner. Sorry to have to bring this news to you this way, I know most of the guys who read this might have seen him more recently than I did, if you remember him at all. Many of us will never forget him. May he have eternal peace and may God forgive his sins. Regards and please pass this message along, Bill Carr Sergeant Major, Retired Formerly with 3d Platoon, 0/2/3/199 LIB Nov '67-Apr 1967. Photographs by SSG Larry Shirk and SP4 James Fisher courtesy of William Carr Jr.
Subjects: stories, portraits, oral histories, histories, Vietnam, Vietnam War, war memorials, military history, military personnel, military photography, people in military occupations, U.S. Military, soldiers
Local Identifier: 16-2566

You are here

Search results