
A Minnesota PBS Initiative
I worked for a year as a GI journalist in an army combat unit, the 1st Cavalry Division, ending in August of 1971. It was my job to poke around our division, everywhere from firebases and the jungle to the deep rear.
Here I am during the dry season mission. I was told repeatedly that my clothes were too clean and my smile too big to be mistaken for a grunt.
Because I was working for the army, I focused on the activities of units and the life of fellow soldiers more than combat action. Because of where I was station - near Saigon - and a relatively quiet time regarding fighting for my division, what I experienced was not particularly traumatic.
I wrote a book called "War Stories" that was published last year that was based on the letters I sent home to my parents, the articles I wrote for the division newspaper and magazines, and photographs.
Because my publisher told me I could use only so many pictures, I have other photos plus some articles to share with you.
There was a good deal of status in clothes full of dirt and sweat. A beard was an extra plus. This is what a grunt should look like - you can tell he's not a low status denizen of the rear like me.
Units working in the jungle were usually resupplied by air (helicopter).
Putting a roof on a firebase command bunker was backbreaking work. The men are moving a log to lay above the hole that would house the bunker.
Several fellow Public Information Office (PIO) staff sit at desks in our office.
Ed Howard, a clerk in our office, wanted his picture taken with his Black Power poster in February, 1971.
Late in my time in Vietnam, once we only a brigade and our main office came to Bien Hoa, we got a new relatively luxurious somewhat air conditioned PIO office in 1971.
Another view of our plush office is shown here in the middle of 1971.
A small group of PIO staffers played with a Polaroid camera one evening. I'm on the left.
I'm dressed in the pressed fatigues I was expected to wear on Bien Hoa Army Base holding our pooch, Blanche, in February, 1971.
Bien Hoa Army Base had its own swimming pool, which frankly I'd forgotten about, but this is evidence of its existence.
A band is coming out of a Chinook at Sandy Pad as seen from the control tower.
Malaria was a constant danger; we not only took two pills to stave it off but slept under mosquito netting. My buddy Alan Brown - my fellow writer - lounges in bed.
We would send press releases with stories that were used in outside papers. This clipping is from May, 1971.
Story Themes: 1972, 1st Cavalry, Animals, Army, BIen Hoa, Combat, Conrad Leighton, dog, Journalist, Look, News Coverage, Photographer, Photography, Saigon, White Bear Lake