I Volunteered for This Mission. I Could Take Photographs That Might Outlive Me.
MAY 29, 2024| MARVIN J. WOLF
I rode the third chopper in a daisy chain of five, each bird maybe 30 seconds behind the next. Clutching my M16 rifle in the left-side door gunner’s seat and surrounded by men cocooned in combat gear, I sat on a flak jacket in the vague hope that a slug coming up through the ship’s soft aluminum belly wouldn’t make me a eunuch.
The regular door gunner was back at base camp; I had his seat because a Huey has only so much room—aside from the pilots and crew chief, who doubled as right-side door gunner, there were nine grunts aboard. My assignment was to photograph combat operations with A Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry. I’d been in Vietnam for almost six weeks. This was my first helicopter assault.
We flew nap-of-the-earth—as close to the ground as possible—in a swirling netherworld of cloud and mist. Rain condensed inside the helicopter. Everything dripped, all was wet—my rifle, uniform, exposed skin, my camera.
https://thewarhorse.org/army-photographer-recalls-vietnam-mission-harrowing-flight/
