#VIETNAM WAR HOSPITAL FULL#
#VIETNAM WAR HOSPITAL SERIES#

Grantham’s survival, and his 2018 reconnect with Katz, became, according to The New York Times, an “example of resilience and good luck, and of young Marines saving their own.” Katz immediately began surgery to remove the top of Grantham’s right lung as well as bone fragments from two ribs that had been shattered by the enemy bullet. 17, after being loaded onto the M48, the 18-year-old Marine reached the 22nd Surgical Hospital in Phu Bai, where then-Capt. This time, the story, and the records, checked out: On Feb.

#VIETNAM WAR HOSPITAL SERIES#

“But I would ask a series of questions, and the stories would fall apart.”Īfter hearing from Grantham in 2016, Olson knew something was different. “A lot of people have contacted me over the years,” Olson told The New York Times. Nine of the Marines on the tank were later identified, but the identity of the Marine with the chest wound continued to elude Olson as well as historians. “I have very little memory of that moment. “I remember the tank, I remember the lens I shot it with, but I don’t remember taking the photo,” Olson told The Post. Photographer doesn’t recall taking photoīut although he was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal for his work in Hué, Olson has no recollection of the men - or even taking the photo, for that matter. The image itself, taken during the brutal battle for the city of Hué, came to symbolize the futility and brutality of the Vietnam War in the eyes of the American public. Olson, also a freelancer for Life magazine, found that his striking image ran less than a month later, in the Maissue. It was there that the gravely wounded Grantham was placed on an M48 tank, and his photo - snapped in the heat of battle by Stars and Stripes photographer John Olson - was taken. Placed on a door that another Marine had kicked down for use as a stretcher, fellow Marines plugged his bullet wounds with cellophane from cigarette packs and wrapped him in bandages, according to The Post. “It felt like someone had taken a red-hot poker out of the fire and stuck it through my chest,” Grantham told The Post. The sucking wound soon made it nearly impossible for Grantham to catch his breath. Grantham managed to duck several before a bullet sliced through his left lung - barely missing his heart - and exited through his right shoulder. While returning fire with his M60 machine gun, he became exposed, and North Vietnamese soldiers pinned him down with AK-47 rounds. Taking over as gunner, Grantham ran into a nearby building to support another squad of Marines under fire. On the February day described in the iconic photo’s caption, his five-man unit had been decimated after shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade wounded all but the ammo humper.

#VIETNAM WAR HOSPITAL FULL#

Tet Offensive was in full swing as tens of thousands of North Vietnamese Army regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas poured over the border in an aggressive bid to claim South Vietnam.īefore the day was over, five of six autonomous cities, 36 of 44 provincial capitals and 64 of 245 district capitals had been attacked, according to military historian David Zabecki.Īmong those fighting to stop the northern incursion was the 18-year-old machine gunner, Grantham. on January 31, 1968, the city of Hué came under attack. Their first meeting, however, went somewhat differently.Īt 3:40 a.m. “I got to see him for a 54-year follow-up for surgery,” Grantham told The Post. Katz managed to find Grantham that year, prompting a physical reunion in 2022 and an enduring friendship. 17, 1968, the same date displayed in the photo caption, were the medical details of Grantham’s operation,” writes The Washington Post. “The retired doctor living in Rehoboth Beach, Del., rummaged through old files and found what he was looking for: a logbook of surgeries with the 22nd Surgical Hospital in Phu Bai, a U.S. Army surgeon with a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit near Hué, was reading Bowden’s book when he came across that image. The following year, Mayer Katz, who had been a U.S. In 2017, author Mark Bowden released his critically acclaimed book, “ Hué 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam.” Under the iconic photograph, Bowden’s caption identified the injured Marine as Pfc. It is this very photo that has sparked a heartfelt reunion - and a controversy of mistaken identity. In the foreground, a corpsman is holding up an IV drip for a fellow Marine, clinging to life with a chest wound. It has become one of the most enduring photographs of the Vietnam War: Several wounded, dead or dying American troops ride atop a tank being used as a makeshift ambulance. Who's Really in This Iconic Vietnam War Photo? Close

Vietnam war hospital