thedrifter
06-25-05, 09:13 AM
PICTURING VIETNAM
By FRED C. GARDNER
UNDER FIRE: Great Photographs and Writers in Vietnam
Edited by Catherine Leroy with a foreward by Sen. John McCain
Random House, 192 pages, $35
HOW do you return to a place you hoped to never see again and yet never really left? Why would you want to make this visit? As a Vietnam veteran, I have struggled with my feelings on that place and that war for many years.
A new photo essay titled "Under Fire" gave me the opportunity to return to Vietnam, a country I left almost 38 years ago. I was a U.S. Navy corpsman with the First Marine Division in Chu Lai, Vietnam, and saw combat with the Marines, made a patrol aboard a Swiftboat and, for a short time, was attached to the 2nd ROK Marine Brigade from Korea.
For many years, I left all those memories safely tucked away while I went about the business of living my life, gaining an education, raising a family and establishing my career in the business world.
Now, through this book of graphic and gripping photographs and essays, Vietnam has beckoned me again. "Under Fire" includes very little editorializing, while the photos evoke whatever interpretation the reader assigns. But while basically unedited, there is a political element to these photos, especially in the essays written by the photographers whose works are used.
Overall, the authors feel the U.S. was wrong to be in Vietnam but, refreshingly, do not blame the troops. The blame, or rather the responsibility, is placed right where it belongs: squarely on the shoulders of the politicians whose decisions and egos got us into one of the longest wars of our history. Then walked away from their responsibilities and never looked back.
One of the most poignant photos for me is one of a corpsman kneeling over a wounded Marine at Hill 881 in Khe Sanh. (The photo was taken by Catherine Leroy, and the essay is by Wayne Karlin.) To me, the "doc" seems to be willing life back into the Marine, knowing deep down he will lose this one. When he realizes he can no longer help, he moves to the next casualty and never looks back; there is more work to do. Such is war, and such are our lives.
To quote a fellow corpsman friend of mine, "It's just a thing." We all did what we were trained to do, and then came home to get on with our lives.
Perhaps now is the time for a reflective look back at who we were, who we are now and what it all means. We can't change the past, but we can learn from it and pass that knowledge on to those who matter to us most. "Under Fire" provides a means of looking at that period in my life in a safe way as I sort through Vietnam's effect on my life. It should do the same for others.
Fred Gardner saw combat in Vietnam as a medical corpsman with the First Marine Division.
Ellie
By FRED C. GARDNER
UNDER FIRE: Great Photographs and Writers in Vietnam
Edited by Catherine Leroy with a foreward by Sen. John McCain
Random House, 192 pages, $35
HOW do you return to a place you hoped to never see again and yet never really left? Why would you want to make this visit? As a Vietnam veteran, I have struggled with my feelings on that place and that war for many years.
A new photo essay titled "Under Fire" gave me the opportunity to return to Vietnam, a country I left almost 38 years ago. I was a U.S. Navy corpsman with the First Marine Division in Chu Lai, Vietnam, and saw combat with the Marines, made a patrol aboard a Swiftboat and, for a short time, was attached to the 2nd ROK Marine Brigade from Korea.
For many years, I left all those memories safely tucked away while I went about the business of living my life, gaining an education, raising a family and establishing my career in the business world.
Now, through this book of graphic and gripping photographs and essays, Vietnam has beckoned me again. "Under Fire" includes very little editorializing, while the photos evoke whatever interpretation the reader assigns. But while basically unedited, there is a political element to these photos, especially in the essays written by the photographers whose works are used.
Overall, the authors feel the U.S. was wrong to be in Vietnam but, refreshingly, do not blame the troops. The blame, or rather the responsibility, is placed right where it belongs: squarely on the shoulders of the politicians whose decisions and egos got us into one of the longest wars of our history. Then walked away from their responsibilities and never looked back.
One of the most poignant photos for me is one of a corpsman kneeling over a wounded Marine at Hill 881 in Khe Sanh. (The photo was taken by Catherine Leroy, and the essay is by Wayne Karlin.) To me, the "doc" seems to be willing life back into the Marine, knowing deep down he will lose this one. When he realizes he can no longer help, he moves to the next casualty and never looks back; there is more work to do. Such is war, and such are our lives.
To quote a fellow corpsman friend of mine, "It's just a thing." We all did what we were trained to do, and then came home to get on with our lives.
Perhaps now is the time for a reflective look back at who we were, who we are now and what it all means. We can't change the past, but we can learn from it and pass that knowledge on to those who matter to us most. "Under Fire" provides a means of looking at that period in my life in a safe way as I sort through Vietnam's effect on my life. It should do the same for others.
Fred Gardner saw combat in Vietnam as a medical corpsman with the First Marine Division.
Ellie