A United States military search team was digging on a mountainside in southern Laos ten years ago. They came upon pieces of wreckage of a South Vietnamese helicopter that included pieces of a camera, film, and broken watches. The helicopter, which had been shot down in 1971, carried four top-rated war photographers, along with seven Vietnamese soldiers.
AP's Henri Huet, left, and Life magazine's Larry Burrows
at the Vietnam-Laos border in 1971.
Yesterday, the few human remains that were recovered were sealed in a capsule and interred at the Newseum, in Washington, D.C., which is devoted to journalism and its history.
"The Associated Press' Henri Huet, 43; Larry Burrows, 44, of Life magazine; Kent Potter, 23, of United Press International; and Keisaburo Shimamoto, 34, a freelancer for Newsweek, were among the 74 dead and missing Vietnam war correspondents at the war's end in 1975 — the most news media casualties of any conflict in the 20th century. " These were the four photographers who met their fate in that helicopter in 1971.
Read their interesting story on CNN.com
Vietnam War Photographers Honored í here
These photo journalists were invaluable during the Vietnam war. During the Iraq invasion, we had real time pictures from those brave photographers who were in the battle zones with the troops.
In Vietnam, we had to wait for our news. It seemed we rarely had taped footage, or it was limited. The photos told the story for us. They still do.
It always amazes me how reporters and photographers risk their lives, and often give them, to bring to us and to record and preserve history.
Heroes, all.
