Photos US Forces

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Waiting to Move Out: Leatherneck of the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines [2/4] waits for the word to move out during the fighting around Dai Do village east of Dong Ha during Operation Napoleon/Saline (official USMC photo by Private First Class Thurston Bechtel)."

Original description and photograph sourced from: The Jonathan F. Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections

 

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Corporal William W. Sessions smiles as he displays the holes in his helmet and 3.5 inch rocket launcher following an encounter with the North Vietnamese Army. Sessions and an enemy sniper had their duel during Operation Napoleon Saline northeast of Dong Ha. The corporal's smile attests to his victory, 1968 (official USMC photo by Private First Class E. E. Hildreth)."

Original description and photograph sourced by: The Jonathan F. Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections

 

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Sergeant F. J. Caudet (Nahant, Mass.) and Corporal E. ‘Chief’ Wheeler (Chinle, Arizona) conduct a technical inspection on 60mm mortars belonging to Marines taking part in Operation Taylor Common, west of An Hoa. All small arms and light infantry weapons are checked and repaired by a Force Logistic Command Technical Inspection Team before they are taken into the field (official USMC photo by Lance Corporal N. W. Myers)."

Original description and photo sourced from: The Jonathan Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections.

 

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A Chinook rescues a downed Huey from a rice paddy near Trang Bang, January 1969. Photos from this series originally ran in Tropic Lightning News Vol. 4 No. 4 and Stars and Stripes Vol. 25 No. 41.

 

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June 1967. North of Saigon

 

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Joe Hooker Takes a Water Break, 1969
"Thirst Quencher: After trudging over hot mountain terrain conducting search and clear missions five miles southeast of An Hoa Combat Base, Joe E. Hooker, 18 (Weirton, West Virginia), takes a break to quench his thirst. Hooker is a member of the 2d Battalion, 1st Marines [2/1] (official USMC photo by Corporal Gentry)."

Source: From the Jonathan F. Abel Collection (COLL/3611) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division

 

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Combat loaded Leathernecks of the 2d Battalion, 1st Marines cross a river via rubber raft during an operation. 1st Division Marines killed 17 Viet Cong during the four day search and destroy mission 12 miles south of Da Nang (official USMC photo by Lance Corporal G. N. Bradford).

 

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Lieutenant Colonel Frank E. Petersen, Jr., right, and his radar intercept officer, Captain Kenneth D. Edelen tighten their flight gear before leaving on a combat mission. Petersen and Edelen had to eject from their battle-damaged aircraft north of the Rockpile. Petersen commands Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 [VMFA-314]. Edelen flies as his radar intercept officer (official USMC photo by Staff Sergeant P. L. Stacy).

 

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Marines in River Fight near Hill 479, August 1967. Marines of the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines [2/4] take up positions in a river bed during a search and destroy operation south of Phu Bai against Viet Cong Forces (official USMC photo by Lance Corporal Porter).

Photograph and original description sourced from: The Jonathan F. Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections

 

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Pleiku, `66-`67. Company B, 4th Aviation Battalion, 4th Infantry Division.

 

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Pleiku, `66-`67. Company B, 4th Aviation Battalion, 4th Infantry Division.

 

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During the 1960s Fort Polk in Louisiana became an important training base to train and prepare US infantryman for future deployment to SE Asia.

The naturally humid climate and thick, lush vegetation provided conditions not unlike those the troops would be likely to encounter in the war zone.

The area of Ft. Polk set aside for this training was named "Tigerland" and it became the conduit for thousands of GIs who were destined for service in Vietnam.

The following images, circa '66, illustrate the nature of the training which was made as realistic as possible, complete with Vietnamese-style hooches...and including "Sarge" in a pyjama suit and coolie hat armed with an M14!
(LIFE / Pelham )

 

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Ready and Alert: is Private First Class Roger D. Jenkins, 19 (Jackson, Mississippi), as he sweeps through a rice paddy on a search and clear operation being conducted five miles southeast of An Hoa Combat Base. Jenkins is a member of G Company, 2d Battalion, 1st Marines (official USMC photo by Sergeant Huffman)."

Original photograph and description sourced from: The Jonathan F. Abel Collection (COLL/3611) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division

 

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Corporal Carl J. Pedrotti watches his scout dog Wotan as he stops to test the wind while on patrol. The scout dog is from the 3d Military Police Battalion’s Scout Dog Plaoon. Dog teams are used as point on patrols to give infantrymen an early warning if the enemy is nearby (official USMC photo by Private First Class Roger Nystrom)."

Photograph and original description sourced from: The Jonathan Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections.

 

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During the Vietnam War on June 18, 1965 173rd Airborne Brigade Battalion member Larry Wayne Chaffin smiles for the camera.

A napalm strike erupts in a fireball near U.S. troops on patrol in South Vietnam in 1966.

Left: A Vietnamese child clings to his bound father who was rounded up as a suspected Viet Cong guerrilla during “Operation Eagle Claw” in the Bong Son area, 280 miles northeast of Saigon on February 17, 1966. The father was taken to an interrogation camp with other suspects rounded up by the U.S. 1st air cavalry division. Right: The body of an American paratrooper killed in action in the jungle near the Cambodian border is raised up to an evacuation helicopter in War Zone C, Vietnam, in 1966.

A Vietnamese litter bearer wears a face mask to keep out the smell as he passes the bodies of U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers killed in fighting against the Viet Cong at the Michelin rubber plantation, about 45 miles northeast of Saigon, on November 27, 1965

Flares from planes light a field covered with the dead and wounded of the ambushed battalion of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division in the Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, on November 18, 1965.

Four “Ranch Hand” C-123 aircraft spray liquid defoliant on a suspected Viet Cong position in South Vietnam in September of 1965.

A father holds the body of his child as South Vietnamese Army Rangers look down from their armored vehicle on March 19, 1964.

A U.S. Air Force Douglas A-1E Skyraider drops a white phosphorus bomb on a Viet Cong position in South Vietnam in 1966.

 

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A soldier from the Republic of Korea Army's Capital Defence Division ("Tiger division") creeps forward during an assault operation. Bong Son, Republic of Vietnam, 1966

 

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Food distribution in Vietnam.

GI wearing the hot weather uniform.