Photos US Forces

1967-08- C Co, 4th Bn, 9th Inf, 25th Inf Division, Manchus, Caroline Jr Shoopman clowning in our bunker.

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23 Nov 1967, Dak To, South Vietnam. Swathed in battle dressings, but still gripping his weapon, a wounded soldier of the 173rd Airborne awaits evacuation from Hill 875. American troops captured the summit of Hill 875, climaxing the longest and costliest battle of the Vietnam war. The battle claimed the lives of 280 Americans and nearly 1400 North Vietnamese.

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Members of a rifle platoon ready themselves in the field during the Vietnam War. This is one of nearly 2,000 photographs shot by photographer Charlie Haughey, a member of the Army 25th Infantry division, between 1968 and 1969. When he returned home, the photographs were boxed up for the next 40 years, only now being rediscovered, digitized, and made available to the public.

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4 May 1967, COL Robin Olds, 8th TFW commander based at Ubon RTAFB, shot down his second MiG-21 Fishbed during the Vietnam War. During this mission, COL Olds and 1LT William Lefever flew F-4C 63-7668.

COL Olds had flown Lockheed P-38 Lightning and North American P-51 Mustang fighters during World War II and had shot down 12 enemy airplanes over Europe and destroyed an additional 11.5 on the ground. On 2 January 1967, he had destroyed a VPAF MiG-21 near Hanoi, North Vietnam, while flying an F-4C. COL Olds was the first USAF fighter ace to shoot down enemy aircraft during both World War II and the Vietnam War.

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“Bell UH-1 Helicopter Gunship, of Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron Three, Detachment Three Fires a 2.75-inch rocket in support of two River Patrol Boats (PBR) of River Section 523, during Game Warden operations in the Mekong Delta, Republic of Vietnam, October 1969. The action was on the Co Chien River, fifty miles southwest of Saigon. The PBR and helicopter units were based at Vinh Long. Taken by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Dan Dodd. Official U.S. Navy Photograph.“ NHHC photo & caption.

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“The crew of the USS BOSTON (CAG-1) Stack eight inch shell casings during underway replenishment with the USS SACRAMENTO (AOE-1). The operation took place on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin, June 1967. Photographed by Chief Journalist R.D. Moeser, USN.”NHHC photo.

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Terry Fincher (1931 - 2008) was one of the premier daily press photographers of the 20th century. In one of Fincher's best-known photos from Vietnam, U.S. troops rest in a tent, a human skull displayed before them, October 1968.
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US soldiers, one wounded and carried by a comrade, descend Hill Timothy, April 1968.
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Terry Fincher (left) with his friend and fellow Englishman, Larry Burrows, on Hill Timothy, Vietnam, April 1968. Burrows died on February 10, 1971, along with fellow journalists Kent Potter, Keisaburo Shimamoto, and Henri Huet, when their helicopter was shot down over Laos. Potter was 23 years old. Shimamoto was 34. Huet was 43. Larry Burrows, the oldest, was just 44.
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US troops and supply helicopters on Hill Timothy, April 1968.
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U.S. Army medic Carl Fosco (left) and unknown machine gunner (right) in Vietnam, 1970. The machine gunner was KIA a shortly after photo was taken
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Fosco received medic and infantry training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and soon after went to Vietnam. The air cavalry was a “frenetic” operation and he was always on the move.

He was stationed mostly in Quang Tri, just south of the DMZ between North and South Vietnam. Fosco and his fellow medics would be sent out to patrol in areas from Khe Sanh to the border of Laos.

Fosco carried a bayonet given to him by a soldier he replaced. He would use the weapon to slash through the uniform of a wounded man so he could quickly tend to his injuries. It worked better than the government-issued scissors in his medical bag, which were “just stupid when somebody’s trying to shoot at you,” he said.

Fosco and his team were on call 24-7. They could expect to be airlifted into an area and not come out for several days. An A-H1 Cobra – an agile, thin-profile helicopter armed with rockets, machine guns and grenade launchers – provided support to the medics and engaged the enemy, if necessary.

“Whenever we got into trouble, those boys were right there,” Fosco said. “Those pilots have a lot of guts.”

On one mission, an aircraft in another air cavalry troop had been shot down. Fosco’s team was summoned to pick up the crew since the other troop’s infantry was busy elsewhere.

The scene was grim. The helicopter had been obliterated by a rocket and what was left would have fit into the back of a Jeep. Most horrific, though, was seeing the remains of the pilot and co-pilot.

“They were burned to a crisp. Their skulls were there, no eyes. Their hands were burned off with bone sticking out,” Fosco said. “We had to put them in the body bags and put them on the helicopter and get out. I got on board. I was leaning back and I could feel the heat of their bodies through the body bags as we took them to the hospital morgue. I spent almost 15 months on the line like that.”

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US soldiers of the 9th Infantry Division wade through marshland during a operation on South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. April 1967
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