War Stories from Vietnam Combat photography enthusiasts
All week we have been telling "Untold practical articles" As a salute to old soldiers of the Vietnam war. the majority of of those stories contained photographs and film from an elite group of photographers known as DASPO. DASPO is swift for "Department of the Army Special final Unit, Hundreds of men willingly subscribed to this dangerous assignment, to face in the line of fire and capture the "encounters of War, Here are the stories of still shooter Dick Durrance, And battle cameraman Ted Acheson. But my personal mission was to try and find out what it was that lay behind man's urge to fight.
I preserved a camera of my own. what I shot for the army went to the Pentagon. i never saw them. we would see contact sheets, that's all.
Most memorable for me was the very first day of the Tet offensive. I was at Da Nang. And among the attacked the base that [-censured-=https://www.bestbrides.net/signs-that-vietnamese-women-like-you/]vietnamese girls[/-censured-] night, inflated a fuel depot, So great big fire. and the next morning the ARVN rangers and the US troops pushed the NVA back out of the village. and ladies who'd been wounded in the fighting were coming at us.
I came back printed them up 1968 and the amount of people who were interested in a soldier's story in 1968 did not call forth a single finger. Nobody was showing an interest. I put 'em in the trash. i did not look at them for 19 years.
Ted Acheson / DASPO combat Cameraman 1968 69
"A still cameraman may take a shot and jump down. A motion guy has to stand there for about 10 12 seconds to take the image. And then do not just one picture, He has to take another picture as you have got to build a sequence right? subsequently, You're doing this all and you're exposing your body to incoming.
I came in 2 weeks after the Tet pungent in 1968. And that camera's probably all of the lens on it about 40 pounds. The belt was another 15. so, get sweat dripping down. both hands are in a bag changing this stuff. Putting it back into your camera. You are absolutely drenched. and you have to get back up and shoot some more. Cause in Vietnam if you went purchasing a firefight to cover you never found one. But if you weren't struggling to find one, The darndest moments it would happen.
very well, among the easiest times in there, An role-playing game, the rocket propelled grenade, They probably saw this huge lens sticking out and think it is a weapon. They shot an RPG in, Blew myself and an ABC cameraman about 100 feet from where we were state. i didn't get a scratch on me, practically,
Ken Clarke / Pritzker Military Museum and Library president and CEO
"It is now that the men of DASPO and the men who served during the Vietnam war need to start imagining their legacy, And start collecting their archives that are in their attics or basements and making sure those are put in good hands for generation x. And this is now for them to tell their story. About a year and half ago we started working with some Vietnam war veterans who were combat photographers to put on an exhibit featuring their photography. have been more than 200 guys in this unit. I think the Vietnam war is not very well recognised,
cock Durrance: "What I think I would like people to get is to master the human cost of war. charge to the soldiers, The cost to the ordinary people, The cost to the.
We're nearly 50 years later and now there's an interest in really trying to understand or know war as a way of trying to understand all wars. And so I'm delighted these wonderful pictures all these guys took is the best way to introduce people to the face of war.
We're happy with what we did here, Many soldiers are proud of their work. And it comes often at an awful cost,
you will uncover Dick Durrance's still photographs and Ted Acheson's film footage in the "hearts of War" Exhibit at the Pritzker government Museum and Library on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. It runs now all through May. as well as, You can find out more on DASPO and see all of our Untold Stories, As well as Tribune's hour written, By clicking on these links.