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"Flying with Yankee Papa 13" is widely regarded as one of the greatest photographic documents of the Vietnam War.
In the spring of 1965, weeks after the arrival of 3,500 U.S. Marines in Vietnam, a 39-year-old Briton named Larry Burrows began writing a series of feature articles for Life magazine to tell the American public about the daily experiences of the U.S. military's ground and air forces during the rapidly expanding war of intervention.
On March 31, 1965, Burrows took part in a normal combat patrol aboard the Yankee Papa 13 (YP13) helicopter piloted by 21-year-old Captain James. Since 1962, Burrows has participated in dozens of similar helicopter patrol combat missions, and as he was about to fly to the mission site, he and the captain wondered if this mission would be a normal patrol without contact with the enemy or, as in recent weeks, the Viet Cong had prepared 7.62mm machine guns waiting for them in the bushes.
A few minutes later, they knew the answer - it was a disastrous patrol flight.
Prior to this patrol, Burrows pioneered the installation of a special photographic device on the helicopter's M-60 machine gun, which captured the door gunner and the outside of the helicopter, and could change with the angle of the machine gun. Burrows used a wire in the cabin to "shoot remotely".
Burrows installing a camera.
Before takeoff, the U.S. Army's 163 Flight Squadron was briefed on the mission.
This is the hatch machine gunner on the Yankee Daddy 13, 21-year-old Lance C. Farley, a smiling young man walking to the plane with two M-60 general-purpose machine guns, and still very happy that a reporter was able to take pictures of himself on this mission.
The machine gun Farley was holding in his left hand was fitted with a special camera mount.
It was Farley and his comrades hanging out in a Vietnamese shop outside the base.
Farley tries on a hat, and the woman in the photo doesn't know if it's the shopkeeper or his temporary girlfriend.
Before takeoff, the ground crew and crew discovered that there was a small glitch in the aircraft's fuel line, which could cause the engine to catch fire at high speeds, and the captain and ground crew immediately began repairs.
Before taking off, Farley carefully groomed his hair, using the glass as a mirror and wearing the helmet on his head, probably trying to make himself look more handsome in the photo.
All crew members use flight helmets, and in addition to safety needs, they can communicate in noisy environments through the built-in headphones in the helmet. Farley's stinky actions drew the eyes of 20-year-old machine gunner Hoilien.
This is the scene at the beginning of the article, when the helicopter is about to reach the target, and Farley squints his eyes and tries to search for suspicious targets on the ground under the strong wind and scorching sun - but at this time, the Viet Cong soldiers hiding in the bunkers around the woods will not open fire.
The plane landed in a clearing in the woods, and South Vietnamese and American soldiers quickly jumped out of the plane and ran towards the assembly point. Because they know that this is the most dangerous time, and the soldiers who cannot fight back and dodge are the best targets.
One of the first released photos.
After most of the planes landed, a dense stream of bullets flew towards the American troops and planes, and the Viet Cong dug a circle of trenches along the woods, well camouflaged with branches and grass, and now, these small soldiers leaned out of their bunkers and fired fiercely at the hovering helicopters like targets.
The time it took for the infantry to get off the plane became extremely long, and the two machine gunners on board the helicopter were manipulating their machine guns to shoot at the edge of the woods, in the usual American parlance, trying to kill all the living creatures in the woods - but the bullets were still flying from a distance, making a "ping-pong" sound on the fuselage.
One of the pilots reported over the walkie-talkie to Colonel Evos on the lead plane: "Colonel! Captain! We were hit. The colonel replied, "We were all hit." If your plane can still move, keep flying for me. ”
"Yankee Papa 13" was also shot, but without delaying its flight, the helicopters writhed awkwardly, their rotors frantically rolling up dust and grass clippings on the ground, and turned around and flew to another assembly point, where they were going to pick up the rest of the troops.
As he flew near the second landing zone, the pilot, Captain Peter Vogel, found the Yankee Papa 3 still parked on the ground. Its engines were running, the rotors were turning, but something was clearly wrong with the helicopter.
"Why didn't they take off?" Vogel muttered over the intercom. Then he landed the "Yankee Daddy 13" nearby to see what went wrong.
Vogel grabbed the short-barreled carbine next to his seat (which looked like a CAR-15 from the photo) and ran to the motionless Yankee Papa 3, then he climbed into the high cockpit and found that both crew members of the YP3 had been shot and collapsed in their seats.
The crew of Yankee Papa 13 rushed to drag the two wounded onto the plane, and throughout the process, Private Wayne Hoyllien had been firing heavily with his machine gun at the second Viet Cong machine-gun position in the woods to the left of the plane. The Viet Cong attack was equally violent, with several holes punched in the fuselage on either side of Hoylien's seat, but the fatal machine gunner was unscathed.
The rest of the helicopters had retreated, and the Yankee Papa 13 was now the target of fire from the surrounding Viet Cong machine-gun positions, and the bullets began to concentrate on the rotors and the high-protruding cockpit, all the organic bulletproof glass around the cockpit shattered, and a single bullet grazed the pilot's neck - only a little deviation would break the pilot's neck. The radio and instrument panel of the aircraft were also broken. The wounded of the YP3 were finally dragged into the plane, the helicopter climbed at a rapid pace and quickly left there, and the machine guns of Hoylion did not stop firing.
While the plane was on the ground, the two machine gunners were firing all the time, they were just fighting for their lives.
Many small essays are taken out of context based on this photo, saying that the machine gunner of YP13 was killed, but in fact, the two on the floor are the main and co-pilots of YP3.
It wasn't until the YP13 was out of enemy range that Farley and Hoyllien were able to lay down their machine guns and begin providing medical care to the YP3's two wounded.
The co-pilot of the YP3, Lieutenant James Maghel, was seriously injured. When Farley and Hoylion took off his bulletproof vest, they found him with a large wound under his armpit. "There was a pained look on Magill's face," Burrows reported, "and his lips moved slightly." But if he says anything, he will also be drowned out by the noise of helicopters. He was pale, and I don't know how long he could hold out. Farley began to bandage Mager's wounds. The wind in the doorway kept blowing the bandages, and the bandages whipped over his face. Then his nose and mouth began to bleed, and his eyes were glazed. Farley attempts mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but Mager is dead. Hoylien pulled Farley away. No one said a word. ”
After discovering that the lieutenant had been killed, the two began to deal with the less wounded Sergeant Billy Owens, a bullet shattering his left shoulder blade. Farley and Hoylion quickly bandaged the sergeant's wounds, and the sergeant lay on the floor without saying a word, with the lieutenant's body lying at his feet.
The atmosphere in the cabin was oppressive, and Farley began to sob, and then he sat down in his machine gun seat and began to cry bitterly, scolding the damn war. The others didn't say a word.
First photo two.
After returning to the Da Nang base, Farley and the ground crew helped the injured Sergeant Owens get off the plane, and when he saw Farley still in tears, the captain Vogue and Lieutenant comforted him: "We can't do anything, if we stay for another 10 seconds, none of us will come back." ”
Two weeks later, Burrows' article "The Da Nang Report" and this series of thrilling photographs were published as cover stories in the April 16, 1965 issue of Life magazine.
Over the decades, Life magazine has published dozens of photographic essays by some of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. However, few of these essays combine authenticity and photography with such intense effect as "Patrolling with Yankee Papa 13." Three of the photos in this article are published for the first time.
"Patrolling with Yankee Papa 13" is widely regarded as one of the greatest photographic documents of the Vietnam War.
Six years after the photographic essay was published, in February 1971, Burrows and three other journalists, Henri Huet, Kent Potter and Keisaburo Shimamoto, were shot down in a helicopter over Laos, leaving no survivors.
Burrows's life was forever frozen at the age of 44 — never to be photographed or reported on the horrific and deadly Vietnam War and its ending.
First photo 3.
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