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Found Collection of VN Combat Art, Negatives, Contact Sheets


noexpert
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Alpha Co, 2/39th, Rach Kien area, 1968. Gordon Birdsell with M-60. Vietnam Memorial Panel 26W Line 110.

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  • 2 weeks later...

With Alpha, 2/39th. Wayne took this photo of me and an Alpha Co grenadier. That mound between us is a red ant hill and those little b's were hated and feared second only to the people we were after and the toys they left behind. The evil, and supposedly mindless, monsters would crawl between your helmet and liner and then drop out and start biting in the middle of a paddy...arrrrrggggghhhhh....

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316th FS 324th FG
Cholon. Both sides expended more ammunition than I ever experienced anywhere else.

 

So many emotions in one pic. The guy in the middle is just pissed, the guy on the 50 is grim and determined. The guy plugging his ears, and then the guy next to him swigging from his canteen.

 

Wow

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Niner Alpha

That M60 guy beside the track brings back a memory of a post at my site about the same photo. A webmaster at the 5/60th site had the photo but didn't think it belonged. Another guy at my site thinks the guy with the 60 may be some one from the 6/31st because, of all things, an Americal emblem in the picture.

 

http://www.6thofthe31st.com/bb/viewtopic.p...uy+Cholon#p4749

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I'm pretty sure the photo with the stretcher bearer is 5/60th and that the second is 2/47th. 6/31st was so new to the division, and I was only luggage anyway, then that I'll be honest, if they were mixed in with the units I would not have known. Those poor guys were almost taken from the plane to the battlefield and chewed up badly I do know that. One of their guys eventually wound up in the Detachment and because of his 11B background I think, and our new XO's Infantry background, the ORLL's and historical reports coming out were a lot more - let's say - authentic, than they had been previously.

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Gen Ewell visiting the art team. Beyond being a pretty good example of the limitations of Polaroids when subjects moved, and of General Ewell's amazingly fast right hand, if you look closely you'll notice a dark shadow on my right shoulder of where a patch used to be. The jacket was issued to me (not at the 90th Replacement) but at our supply room. I can only speak from my own experience, but re-issue uniforms and boots were commonplace when I was there. I rarely saw anyone get new stuff. I'm not talking about laundry, I'm talking supply. This was at the time that everyone was turning in their jungle fatigues and boots before they left country.

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This was taken when we returned to Bearcat from the DMZ. I've included it because, like a few of the other pics I've put up, apparently a number of people already have seen this one. Years ago I shared a lot of pics with someone without realizing they were going to use them and, as a result, at least some of them are floating around. I didn't even know they were out there until someone here sent me copies of pictures of myself. For those who have them the correct spelling of the guy's name beside me is Cullinan.

 

I've been able to correct the colors a little because i still have the original print. The neg, if it still exists belongs to whichever member of the 19th MHD who took it. The Combat Artist tab is sort of visible above the 9th Div patch.

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This gives a sense of what it took for these guys to go into those tree lines time after time. From the air and even from a short distance, they don't like like much but once you crossed inside it was a horror movie...and this was taken just on the edge. On the bright side, sending mail was free and the less than $200 a month a PFC earned was tax free, so it's not like there weren't benny's. It was an honor to be able to record what these guys did.

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  • 3 months later...

Page from 1968 sketchpad... We used ballpoints, felt tip pens (which were still pretty new back then), colored inks, pencil, conte crayon, whatever. I had a Rapidograph pen I had brought from home, that I practically had to keep in a safe guys coveted it so badly. My high school art teacher used to send me the ink for it because we had no budget and it wasn't the kind of thing the PX stocked. Needed the space for more Beenie-Weenies. :)

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...a Monitor (I think is the nomenclature.) Renderings were not a long suit, but I wished I had the talent to do them because there were so many types of vessels and vehicles that were adapted in so many ways for war in the Delta.

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Not particulary dramatic, but perhaps of interest to vehicle folks. These guys showed up while I was with the RTAVR and set up off to the side. Guess they wanted to be sure they had really good AFVN reception out in the field. ;)

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