Viet Nam 1970-71
The author held a US Army press pass that entitled him to close-up seating and access to post-event press conferences. This collection of images was digitally scanned from Ektachrome slides thirty-plus years after the event. May God bless the Vietnam veterans on all sides of the conflict! May the Vietnamese people always live in peace!
Mail call in front of the hooch at Cu Chi. The 3/13th Field Artillery basecamp area was noted for having red and yellow accents painted throughout the HQ unit, including rocks lining the walkways. CSM Monsees was a very serious soldier. Since we were all prettied up and directly next to the wire, was the 3/13th a target for VC rockets? Photo by Ed Yocum. Củ Chi Base Camp was established in 1965 near Highway 1, 25 km northwest of Tan Son Nhut Air Base and 50 km southeast of Tây Ninh. The camp was located south of the Vietcong stronghold known as the Iron Triangle and was near, and in some cases above, the Cu Chi Tunnels.
Overlooking the Michelin rubber plantation just west of Cu Chi a 155mm self-propelled howitzer fires a round in support of 25th Infantry Division troops (3/13th Artillery Battalion). Photo by Mike Roche with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, one of the first, popular 35mm single lens reflex cameras, with TriX Pan 400 ISO film (by Mike Roche in October 1970).
"The Things They Carried" after the Tim O'Brien novel of the same name. A cache of weapons discovered in a tunnel complex by Blackhorse Troopers, in February, 1971, near Trang Bang village (11th Armored Cavalry Regiment photo). Satchel charges, grenades, several rifles, RPG rounds, and anti-personnel devices.
Homemade Christmas card mailed home, December, 1970. (17th Public Information Detachment, 11 Armored Cavalry Regiment, Di An, RVN). Bottom row left to right Ralph ..., Jack McAllister, Ed Yocum. Middle row Mike Roche, Bob Eveler. Top row Jeff Lowe, Rod Covington, Joe Marchesani, Darrel Jensen.
Taken in the rec. area at the back of the 17th PID hooch, which combined our barracks and our office. Processed in the 11th ACR Photo Lab Duece-and-a-Half at Di An by Ed Yocum. Photo by RJ House 28th Military History Detachment, Di An.A true, field-hardened 11th ACR warrior during the Cambodian assault in 1970. This brave man has been identified by his family members! He is Leon Lester Woodruff of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He left us in late 2016 (US Army Photo from the personal archives of an Army journalist of the 17th PID, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment).
Four-star General Creighton "Abe" Abrams speaks to Blackhorse Troopers outside of Regiment Headquarters at Di An. Colonel Donn A. Starry (the highly decorated commander of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment who was wounded in the unit's incursion into Cambodia, and later a four-star general himself) looks on.
The pock-marked countryside outside of Cu Chi where the 25th Infantry Division basecamp was located. Seen from a Huey helicopter in September 1970. Many of these "pools" were later used by the Vietnamese for fish farming. Unexploded US Ordinance is still being found in 2015 throughout the Vietnamese countryside.