How Did You Get This Job?: The Daily Journal of a 1st Air Cavalry Combat Photographer in Vietnam

Did you ever wonder what life was like for the large majority of American soldiers in the Vietnam war that weren't grunts? It took a massive structure to support the grunt battalions in the field. Follow my daily journey in the war zone with over 400 photos. I had a wide perspective on the operations of the famous 1st Air Cavalry Division (the unit designed to fight the jungle war), from my job as the head photographer at the 1st Cav information office. While I spent time humping with the grunts in the jungle, I also took a detailed look at other unit activities across the spectrum to the other extreme, the aircraft repair crews in rear areas that were far from any action. I present my daily journal, with comments, drawn from the 257 letters I sent home documenting a wide range of subjects, including the wasted days on KP, and the stressful nights on perimeter guard. I show you the details with over 400 of my photos. Emotional issues are addressed, the terror of incoming, ground attacks, survivor guilt, PTSD, short-timer paranoia, the apprehension of a combat assault, and sweating out a jungle ambush. I left the U.S.A. on Veteran's Day, 1968, and was assigned to the elite 1st Air Cav at Phuoc Vinh, 50 km north of Saigon. Their airmobility would help protect the capital from North Vietnamese Army divisions invading from their politically safe sanctuaries in nearby Cambodia. When I arrived at the information office, they had plenty of photographers, so I strung barbed wire and filled countless sandbags for a week, and then worked two weeks at the 1st Cav Photo Lab at the huge base in Bien Hoa, where I saw the war from the rear echelon (REMF) viewpoint. I returned to Phuoc Vinh, and on Christmas Eve 1968, I photographed the good will tour of South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. A month later, I was appointed PIO Photo Coordinator, the 1st Cav's head photographer, a prestigious job that I held for nine months. As I traveled around on my assignments, grunts, artillerymen, and even REMFs would often ask me, "How did you get this job?"