Who was the best photographer in Vietnam

[danangdave]

it was on tv in two episodes the video which came out a few years ago only ran for about 80 or 90 minuits the dvd runs for 200 min it was filmed in thailand and australia

[juoneen]

I have a field jacket owned by a VN combat photographer , The guy who sold it to me bought storge lockers and had a photo of him with that famous news guy that had the pencil thin moustache , cronkite,,,almost forgot his name for a minute, but the guy woudnt sell me the cronkite photos with the photographer,(really peeved me off) as he thought since it was personlaized to the photographer, he wanted to keep it . I have his coat packed away , and i have never seen another GI jacket with a photographer strip like the name part stitched below or above. I havent seen it for years. and wish i had taken photos instead of having to hunt dig it out where i have it storaged. He had a wierd name. I also recall he had some damage to the sleeve, almost looked like battery acid. In fact i was thinking about that jacket a week or so ago, then you go and start a thread on photographers...thats wierd. I really hate it when people talk about stuff , like im doing, and dont show it right away..but its true i really do own one. I also have a guards uniform from spandau prison somewhere.

[hochiminhtrail]

would be nice to see it tho, especially the name on that jacket

A friend of my father Sean Flynn was a foto journalist, he got captured and later killed in in cambodia by the khmer rouge, there is even a documentary about him, how they are trying to find the graves, 10 years ago, but to no real succes.
Dana stone was the other journalist that was captured with him.

A real great foto journalist is Horst Faas, he was an old hand in Vietnam and made some great shots, he was AP chief photographer.

Originally Posted by juoneen

I have a field jacket owned by a VN combat photographer , The guy who sold it to me bought storge lockers and had a photo of him with that famous news guy that had the pencil thin moustache , cronkite,,,almost forgot his name for a minute, but the guy woudnt sell me the cronkite photos with the photographer,(really peeved me off) as he thought since it was personlaized to the photographer, he wanted to keep it . I have his coat packed away , and i have never seen another GI jacket with a photographer strip like the name part stitched below or above. I havent seen it for years. and wish i had taken photos instead of having to hunt dig it out where i have it storaged. He had a wierd name. I also recall he had some damage to the sleeve, almost looked like battery acid. In fact i was thinking about that jacket a week or so ago, then you go and start a thread on photographers...thats wierd. I really hate it when people talk about stuff , like im doing, and dont show it right away..but its true i really do own one. I also have a guards uniform from spandau prison somewhere.

[MikeP]

Generally the media was not allowed in the border "A" Camps.

Fall of '69 we were under siege and they were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us.
We had a huge amount of casualties, civilian and military.

They sent up some 1st and 11th Cav, plus 3 corps Mike Force to help out.

Basically created a target rich environment for enemy gunners.

One day a big red headed Australian Journalist and his Philipino photogapher showed up.

He allowed he was going to "get into the mix" with us.

Live with us and document our existance.

About an hour later the photog had lost a leg and had other wounds.
The journalist had a minor wound on one arm.

He as crying and snivelling like a little bitch-demanding a medivac.

I got hit the next day and was in ICU at 3rd field in Saigon a few days later.

I saw that guy waltzing about like John Wayne.

Real hero.

Some recent info indicates it was Cambodians who had left my camp for home who killed Flynn and Stone.

They were Khmer Seraii.

[Bob Chatt]

The Sean Flynn story has always been intriguing. There have been the rumors around that he was assainated. After he did the expose story of VC /NVA prisoner tortures, by US elite units. He went on a op. in Cambodia with one of these units, and was killed. I don't know if the story has ever been proven, or if it is just a "Urban Myth". I doubt anyone will ever know the truth on this case.
I have in my anti-Vietnam protestor pins, someplace, one with his photo and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SEAN FLYNN , around the photo. It's one of the harder to find Ant-Vietnam pins.

[Beezman]

Bob, here is the matchbook version of the pin you mentionned:

[MikeP]

Those guys took off into Cambodia alone on bicycles.

In spite of being thoroughly and wisely advised not to.

The fantasy land stuff about secret elite units gets funnier and more convoluted than I can keep up with.

Cambodians are beautiful friendly folks.
They are also ferocious vicious warriors who will eat your liver.

[hochiminhtrail]

the story was that they got captured on Highway Nr. 1 leadind to the border crossing in direction Moc Bai, they were first captured by VC units, and later handed over to Khmer rouge, it was a mistery why they were handed over, as it was very unusual, this is the story that i recall, some details might not be 100% accurate, the TV documentary was great, they even found the village where they might have been exectuted, as you imagime they were moved from the border to a more inland location, i thing in the region of Stung Treng.

I wish i could find this documentary, Tim Page is also apperaring in it.

Sayonara

Alex

[juoneen]

Ill see if i can roust it out to get the name to see if hes known .

[hochiminhtrail]

Here a video where you see Sean, it must be just a few days before his capture, the video ist dated 8 th of April 1970, but he went missing arround the 4th i think, so there must have been a mix up.
for the non French speakers, you can see a white car at the end of the clip, it had 2 japanese journalist in it and their driver, they all got captured, anybody now their names? and their fate?

http://www.ina.fr/fictions-et-animat...mbodge.fr.html

Alex

[nguoi tien su]

Alex, in Requiem, it is said that Flynn went missing on the 6th.

Dieter Ballendorf (GER) and Georg Gensluckner (CH) disappeared on the 8th also on road one.

But it seems that the report is about Claude Arpin-Pont (FR), who was captured on the 5th, on road number one. He was with two japanese and a khmer driver. Villagers said that they had been forced to walk towards Laos. Their names are not in the book. The interview must have been shot one the 5th, then sent to France and broadcasted on the 8th, hence the date on the document. That means that the report was made just one day before Flynn was captured.

April 70 was also deadly for Willy Mettler (CH) who disappeared near Kampot on the 16th.

NTS

[nguoi tien su]

On www.pownetwork.org are the identities of the Japanese :

On the same day, French journalist Claude Arpin and Japanese correspondents
Akira Kusaka and Yujiro Takagi arrived by auto at the same location on Route
1.

This is on Flynn's file.

http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/f/f601.htm

An other source also speaks about the 6th for capture of the group :

Arpin-Pont, Claude Dominique (France) was a freelancer,
with occasional assignments to Newsweek, primarily in
Cambodia. He was born on 31 December, 1940, in Tignes in the
Savoy (Jura) Alps.Claude Arpin took his first photographs at
age 14 and dropped out of school at 16. When he was 18 he had
to join the Army and served for three years as a paratrooper in
Algeria.His first pictures were published in 1962.He first went
to Viet Nam in 1967 accompanying a French veterans delegation.
Initially in Viet Nam he then concentrated on coverage of
the war in Cambodia.He was captured by the Khmer Rouge on
April 6, 1970, about six km east of Chi Phou on Cambodian
Route 1, near the South Viet Namese border. At the time he was
with two Japanese correspondents and a Cambodian driver. His
capture was witnessed by the second secretary of the Japanese
embassy in Phnom Penh (Shimaware) who followed in another
car. Arpin is presumed dead.

And here is a list of the correspondant who were killed in Cambodia just for the year 1970...


Gilles Caron, French, working for Agence Gamma, who disappeared near Svay Rieng, April 5, 1970
Sean Flynn, American, a freelancer, near Svay Rieng on April 6, 1970
Dana Stone, American, from CBS, Svay Rieng, April 6, 1970
Claude Arpin, French, Newsweek, Svay Rieng, April 6, 1970
Guy Hannoteaux, French, L'Express, Svay Rieng, April 6, 1970
Akira Kusaka, Japanese, Fuji TV, Svay Rieng, April 6, 1970
Yujiro Takagi, Japanese, Fuji TV, Svay Rieng, April 6, 1970
George Gensluckner, Austrian, freelance, Svay Rieng, April 8, 1970
Dieter Bellendorf, German, NBC, Svay Rieng, April 8, 1970
Willy Mettler, Swiss, freelance, Kampot, April 16, 1970
Takeshi Yanagisawa, Japanese, Nippon Denpa, Kampot, May 10, 1970
Terro Nakajima, Japanese, Omori Research, location unknown, May 29, 1970
George Syvertson, American, CBS, Takeo, May 31, 1970
Gerry Miller, American, CBS, Takeo, May 31, 1970
Ramnik Lekhi, Indian, CBS, Takeo, May 31, 1970
Tomoharu Ishii, Japanese, CBS, Takeo, May 31, 1970
Kojiro Sakai, Japanese, CBS, Takeo, May 31, 1970
Yoshiniko Waku, Japanese, NBC, Takeo, May 31, 1970
Welles Hangen, American, NBC, near Takeo, May 31, 1970
Roger Colne, French, NBC, Takeo, May 31, 1970
Rene Puissesseau, French, ORTF, Siem Reap, July 7, 1970
Raymond Meyer, French, ORTF, Siem Reap, July 7, 1970
Johannes Duynisveld, Dutch, freelance, location unknown, September 18, 1970
Kyoichi Sawada, Japanese, UPI, Takeo, October 28, 1970
Frank Frosch, American, UPI, Takeo, October 28, 1970

That gives also an idea of what was happening in Cambodia...

[hochiminhtrail]

the japanese killed could have been

Akira Kusaka, Japanese, Fuji TV, Svay Rieng, April 6, 1970
Yujiro Takagi,Japanese, Fuji TV, Svay Rieng, April 6, 1970

Akira Kusaka. A network reporter, he was captured by the Viet Cong along with colleague Yujiro Takagi on April 5 near the South Vietnam border. They were on a trip sponsored by the South Vietnamese government to show the extent of Viet Cong infiltration in the region. They were never heard from again.

Now the next question, they were capured inside cambodia and not on the Vietnamese side, so by whom was the trip being sponsored?? It seem that the thrue facts are a little mixed up here.

Alex

[hochiminhtrail]

Here some real details


TAKAGI, YUJIROName: Yujiro TakagiRank/Branch: CivilianUnit: Cameraman, Fuji TelevisionDate of Birth:Home City of Record: JapanDate of Loss: 06 April 1970Country of Loss: CambodiaLoss Coordinates: 110236N 1060419E (XT171209)
Status (In 1973): Prisoner of WarCategory:Acft/Vehicle/Ground: autoRefno: 1585
Other Personnel in Incident: Akira Kusaka; Claude Arpin; same day at samegrid coordinates: Sean Flynn, Dana Stone (all captured)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1991 fromone or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.REMARKS:SYNOPSIS:

Photo journalists Sean Flynn and Dana Stone left Phnom Penh onrented Honda motorbikes to find the front lines of fighting in Cambodia.Traveling southeast on Route One near a eucalyptus plantation in easternCambodia, the two men were stopped at a check point at grid coordinatesXT171209 in Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia, and led away by elements of theViet Cong Tay Ninh Armed Forces and elements of the combined NorthVietnamese-Viet Cong Ningh Division based in Cambodia.On the same day, French freelance journalist-photographer Claude Arpin, onan assignment for Newsday, and Japanese correspondents Akira Kusaka, acorrespondent for Fuji Television, and Yujiro Takagi, a cameraman with FujiTelevision, arrived by auto at the same location on Route 1.

A UPI report at the time stated that the group had been captured 10 kilometers east of chiPhu on Cambodian Route 1.
Sean Flynn is the son of actor Erroll Flynn. Although Flynn had spent muchof his life in California and New York, his mother, Lili Loomis, maintainedhomes both in Palm Beach and Ft. Dodge, Iowa.
Flynn was on a photo contractto Time Magazine, and his friend Dana Stone was on contract to CBS to coverAmerican fighting in Cambodia. Both men were "veterans" of combat news.Stone attended school in New Hampshire, but his home was in Vermont, wherehis parents resided.
He had been in the U.S. Navy at the time of the Bay ofPigs incident. Both men frequently travelled with military units on patroland operations. The Marines who knew Dana Stone called him, "Mini-Grunt".Information obtained from indigenous sources indicated that Stone and Flynnwere executed in mid-1971 in Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia.Various sources, including an intercepted radio message from COSUN, the VietCong high command, indicate that Flynn and Stone survived.
One sourcereported that he had seen "a group of very long haired, bearded, tallprisoners near Minot, Cambodia" who were identified as "imperialistjournalists".
Over the years, meanwhile, there has been occasional word fromisolated Cambodian villages that someone saw the "movie star" who is beingheld prisoner by the Khmer Rouge.Flynn's colleagues have said, "If anyone is equipped to survive...years ofhardship in the jungle, it's Sean Flynn...he's very much an expert at junglesurvival."Author Zalin Grant interviewed returned ARVN POWs in early 1973 and releasedthe following data supporting other stories indicating journalists couldstill be alive.

"Returned ARVN POWs sighted the (unnamed) journalists onRoute #7, 17 miles south of Snoul in Eastern Cambodia 7-72 in ox-cartspulled by Hondas; another said a VC captain near Minot, eastern Cambodia(where military American POWs were released from in 1973) reported the(unnamed) journalists held in 7-72 had cameras; Cambodian national saw(unnamed) journalists in 6-72 at Prince Sihanouk's FUNK camp south of Route#13 in Kratie Province; returned ARVN POWs said a guard told them in 3073that the journalists were still alive and held in their area." WalterCronkite reported a sighting of (unnamed) journalists in January, 1974.Whether Grant's and Cronkite's information relates to Arpin, Flynn, Stone,,Kusaka, and Takagi is not known.

The five are among 22 internationaljournalists still missing in Southeast Asia, most known to have beencaptured. For several years during the war, the correspondents communityrallied and publicized the fates of fellow journalists. After a while, theytired of the effort, and today these men are forgotten by all but familiesand friends.Tragically, nearly the whole world turns its head while thousands of reportscontinue to flow in that prisoners are still held in Southeast Asia.Cambodia offered to return a substantial number of remains of men it saysare Americans missing in Cambodia (in fact the number offered exceeded thenumber of those officially missing). But the U.S. has no formal diplomaticrelations with the communist government of Cambodia, and refused to directlyrespond to this offer.

Although several U.S. Congressmen offered to travelto Cambodia to receive the remains, they have not been permitted to do so bythe U.S.

[kammo man]

Alex you are killing my eyes , throw in a couple of paragraphs !!!!


owen