War Stories from Vietnam Combat wedding photographers
All week we've been telling "Untold tales" As a salute to experienced 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 quickly for "Department of the Army Special picture taking Unit, Hundreds of men willingly signed up for this dangerous assignment, to face in the line of fire and capture the "people of War, Here are the stories of still professional photographer Dick Durrance, And deal with cameraman Ted Acheson. But my personal mission was to try and realize what it was that lay behind man's urge to fight.
I took a camera of my own. and the ones I shot for the army went to the Pentagon. in no way thought saw them. we might see contact sheets, that has all.
Most memorable for me was the very first day of the Tet offensive. I was at Da Nang. And that they had attacked the base that
vietnamese girls night, blown up a fuel depot, So titanic big fire. and subsequently morning the ARVN rangers and the US troops pushed the NVA back out of the village. and women who'd been wounded in the fighting were coming at us.
I came back printed them up 1968 and the number of people who were interested in a soldier's story in 1968 did not call forth a single finger. Nobody was curious. I put 'em over. i did not look at them for 19 years.
Ted Acheson / DASPO fight Cameraman 1968 69
"A still cameraman might take a shot and jump down. A motion guy has to stand there for about 10 12 seconds to take the image. And then not just one picture, He has to take another picture as you have got to build a sequence right? for this reason, You're doing all this and you're exposing your body to incoming.
I came in 2 weeks after the Tet offensive in 1968. And that camera's probably all of the lens on it about 40 pounds. The belt was an additional 15. accordingly, you will have sweat dripping down. hands and wrists are in a bag changing this stuff. Putting it back into your camera. You are absolutely drenched. along with to get back up and shoot some more. Cause in Vietnam if you went purchasing firefight to cover you never found one. But if you weren't researching for one, The darndest moments it happens.
very, of the times in there, An role-playing game, the rocket propelled grenade, They probably saw this huge lens sticking out and thought it was a weapon. They terminated an RPG in, Blew myself and an ABC cameraman about 100 feet from where we were status. i did not get a scratch on me, very,
Ken Clarke / Pritzker Military Museum and Library director and CEO
"It is now that the men of DASPO and the men who served during the Vietnam war need to start thinking 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 it is really now for them to tell their story. About a year and half ago we started working with some Vietnam war veterans who were combat wedding 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 appreciated,
dick Durrance: "What I think I would like people to get is to learn the human cost of war. it is profitable to the soldiers, The cost to the civilians, The cost to the.
We're nearly 50 years later and now there's an interest in really trying to understand war as a way of trying to understand all wars. And so I'm delighted these wonderful pictures all these guys took is a good method to introduce people to the face of war.
We're pleased with what we did here, Many soldiers are proud of the things they're doing. And it comes often at a terrible cost,
you can understand Dick Durrance's still photographs and Ted Acheson's film footage in the "encounters of War" Exhibit at the Pritzker military Museum and Library on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. It runs now involving May. together with, You can discover DASPO and see all of our Untold Stories, As well as Tribune's hour written, By moving their these links.
