Army Photo-journalist what made me different

From a journalist perspective, in Vietnam, I was just an Specialist 4 running around with a camera and a notepad trying to do my job while learning what that job was. My skills as a writer and a photographer weren't where they are today, but good enough to see daylight in a variety of publications.

Which equates to not even enough jelly to cover a piece of toast.

But I did try and I did accomplish something.

By the time I was done with my military career, I sold an article to Saga Magazine on Aviation Tank Killers.

So what seperates me from all the other photo-journalists is the fact that I honed my skills as both a distinguished writer and photographer while covering the historical development of the Cobra as a platform of choice.  I witnessed and reported on the use of the Cobra as an anti-tank TOW missile firing platform from provisional to fully operational units in Europe.

I wrote hundreds of articles, took thousands of pictures and saw articles published in dozens of publications including:

• AARES -- A Holland Publication
• Army Aviation Digest
• Army Aviation Magazine
• Army Times
• Army Magazine
• Clarksville Leaf Chronicle
• Eurarmy Magazine
• Frontline
• Pillars And Posts
• Rendezvous with Destiny Magazine
• Soldiers Magazine
• Stars And Stripes

I was also directly responsible for TV coverage of the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion during REFORGER 77 when Hillery Brown did a piece on our unit for ABC news and for half the photographic content published in Time Magazine by David Allan Burdette.

During REFORGER 78, I was ordered to be the Official Task Force photographer. The Official US Army Photographer assigned to it, got his leg crushed between a tractor and a trailer.

Also, in 1978, I took pictures of the annual Army Aviation Association conference in Arlington, VA.

My focus was on Army Aviation and my purpose was to promote it every way I could.

What really distinguishes me from everyone else is I was never a official Army photo-journalist, I paid for all the work that was published and I was just a stringer for the units I was assigned to.

That's what made me special.