A soldier’s eye: rediscovered pictures from Vietnam (Guest Blog)

Two RTOs (Radio-Telephone Operator) and, possibly, a platoon leader, board a Huey. While many of the particles in this image are grass in the air, some of it is damage to the negative as well. Haughey developed his negatives in well over 100 degree heat in a Conex shipping container, and the images were stored in envelopes for decades, resulting in some damage to them.

A rifleman peers through bamboo, looking for a machine gun that had been firing on the platoon. Seconds after Haughey snapped this photo, the machine gun began firing and rounds clipped the bamboo next to this rifleman, who hit the ground to avoid being hit.

An RTO guides a Chinook delivering a sling load of materials and supplies at Fire Support Base Pershing, near Dau Tieng.

Staff Sergeant Edgar D. Bledsoe, of Olive Branch, Ill., cradles a critically ill Vietnamese infant. The child was brought to Fire Support Base Pershing. This image, with this caption, was originally published in Vol. 3 No. 53 of Tropic Lightning News, December 30, 1968.

Soldiers fire a captured M2 60mm mortar, originally a weapon produced by the United States for use in World War II and the Korean War. The mortar was captured on a patrol in a rice paddy, from Viet Cong forces.

A Sergeant kneels on wet ground and checks his M16.

RTOs were the infantry’s irreplaceable link with helicopter support. Here, an RTO watches a Huey bank overhead.

The nine-ship lift was a nine-helicopter-strong formation which transported around 50 men to the field from fire support bases. Here, the first five Hueys in a nine-ship lift have just dropped members of a combat infantry unit near Dau Tieng.

The “tunnel rat” was the soldier that volunteered to, at very high risk, enter Viet Cong tunnel networks and search them for hostile forces, weapons, and contraband. The tunnels would afterword be destroyed with explosives.

An M60 operator pauses for a moment under the heavy load of machine gun ammo. Members of the unit were all required to carry some type of ammo or supplies, including bandoliers of heavy bullets.

Infantry tactical officers observe and direct a combat operation aboard a CNC ship – a command and control chopper.

A soldier poses with captured mortar rounds. The Colonel instructed Haughey to travel to this location specifically to shoot photos of a large cache of weapons that were uncovered and captured near Dau Tieng.

An unidentified soldier pauses for a cigarette.

Blindfolded detainees await questioning from a US Army interpreter.

Hueys depart Dau Tieng base.

A machine gun team fires an M60.

A Vietnamese civilian argues with a G.I. near a stopped supply convoy.

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.

A medic assists an injured Vietnamese civilian.

Injured, weary soldier.

A Vietnamese boy peeks at Haughey’s camera.

A medic gives a group of Vietnamese children a shower with a Lyster Bag.

A file of soldiers on a routine jungle patrol. Haughey says most soldiers wore towels around their necks, like this one did, to help combat sweat in the jungle heat.

Soldiers pull a suspected Viet Cong from hiding during a sweep through a Vietnamese village.

Charlie Haughey poses with a group of Vietnamese school children.

PFC John Kerry (left) and an unidentified soldier grill steaks and drink beers at Cu Chi.

U.S. soldiers patrol through a ghostly, defoliated rubber tree plantation.

Vietnamese children

Vietnamese children in a school

A Vietnamese woman in a xe đạp, a push bicycle.

Soldiers relax under the thin cover of bamboo.

An unidentified medic working with a medical civic action program (MEDCAP) attends to a young Vietnamese child.

An alert, young M60 machine gun operator in the jungle.

Vietnamese children peer through a gate at Haughey’s camera.

Haughey poses with camera and light meter.

Soldiers board a Chinook.

Soldiers aboard an airborne Chinook with a bird’s-eye view through the helicopter’s cargo sling door, take advantage of a few moments “out of the war.

Civilian Vietnamese woman and child.