Art Greenspon, American, born 1942
As fellow troopers aid wounded comrades, a paratrooper of a company, 101st airborne division guides a medevac helicopter through the jungle foliage to pick up casualties suffered during a five-day patrol near Hue, April 1968
Negative April 1968; print 2013
Gelatin silver print
Image: 12 1/4 x 17 15/16 in.
AP photo / Art Greenspon
This powerful, widely circulated image helped to color American public opinion against the war in Vietnam. In the photograph, a paratrooper signals a medevac helicopter to pick up the wounded. Nearly half of these soldiers’ company was killed in this particular firefight, and they had to wait two days for the weather to clear in order to get assistance. The paratrooper raises his arms to the sky, head thrown back and illuminated by a beam of light. He looks almost divine, yet the tension and desperation in his posture embodies the intensity of the conflict. Other members of the company carry and drag their wounded toward him and the eventual evacuation site, following his gaze upward to the hope and promise of rescue.
Art Greenspon spent most of his twenties photographing the Vietnam War. The son of a World War II veteran, he felt a need to find the “truth” about war—a need that led him to become a photojournalist and travel to Saigon. One week after taking this photograph, Greenspon was wounded and sent home, where he ended up pursuing a career in finance.