His photo of the unconscious Marine lying on the tank surrounded by his wounded brothers-in-arms now stands among the iconic images of the Vietnam War. He was helped aboard and situated near the tank’s back end.Ī photographer, John Olson, approached and began to document the moment.
No more than a few blocks away, through streets littered with rubble and alive with gunfire, the tank stopped to pick up three Marines who had been injured by a mortar blast. As more casualties accumulated, Marines in Charlie Company’s Third Platoon helped lift a gravely wounded and unconscious infantryman onto the front of a tank the man was sprawled on a wooden door that served as a stretcher. Many of them had already been wounded or killed. From front-line positions, Marines ran back a block or two to give updates to commanding officers and to receive orders.
First Battalion, Fifth Marines had breached the city’s historic Citadel. It was mid-February 1968, and American and South Vietnamese forces were desperately trying to counter a surprise onslaught that became known as the Tet offensive. The fighting in Hue City, Vietnam, was as intense and confusing as anything the Marines there had ever seen.
0 kommentar(er)
