Burning Kodachrome slides and erasing history

[Freakscene]

I see where you're coming from, and it does make sense. There is one aspect that can be explained. There's another RFFer who's name escapes me. He was a combat photographer with the US army during Vietnam, and he carried both an issued camera and personal camera.

That's @Rangefinder M-P

 

[p.giannakis]

For some strange reason they, themselves, never do it.

This is an interesting discrepancy. As if they are fostering feelings of love and hate at the same time - wanting to preserve but also destroy the same object.

 

[Rangefinder M-P]

Please pardon me for interrupting this thought-provoking thread. As Boojum stated, "History is not what we always want it to be but it always is what it is." I have spent the last 55 years trying to reconcile what I saw and did in South Vietnam. For the most part, I've been successful but, in all honesty, I'm still haunted but those ghosts no longer terrorize my dreams.

I read the link Archiver provided. I empathize with with Mr. O'Connell's. dilemma. I, too, have photographs that I've never shown anyone, not even to my father who was a medic in the South Pacific during WWII. They are locked in a place where no visitors are allowed. I have thought long and hard about destroying them but, to date, haven't. The only reason I can think of is that they are part of me. This thread has awakened the realization that I need to do something with them so as not to burden my wife & daughters when I'm no longer here. It's time for me to act and I think I'll contact the National Museum of the United States Army explain what I have. Here's their information:

Customer Service : (800) 506-2672
Email : customerservice@armyhistory.org

If they don't want the photos, I believe I'll destroy them. I know I'll be destroying history but there are so many photos by Nick Ut, Larry Burrows, Horst Faas and many other that are so much better than mine. (An aside, I met Larry Burrows and Host Faas in Saigon)

Thank you, Freakscene, for making me aware of this thread. I hope I haven't offended with my response.

Mike

 

[Archiver]

Please pardon me for interrupting this thought-provoking thread. As Boojum stated, "History is not what we always want it to be but it always is what it is." I have spent the last 55 years trying to reconcile what I saw and did in South Vietnam. For the most part, I've been successful but, in all honesty, I'm still haunted but those ghosts no longer terrorize my dreams.

🙏❤️ The more time passes, the more distance grows from things, and the more opportunity opens to process and come to terms with the past. Some things just take more time and distance than others.

I read the link Archiver provided. I empathize with with Mr. O'Connell's. dilemma. I, too, have photographs that I've never shown anyone, not even to my father who was a medic in the South Pacific during WWII. They are locked in a place where no visitors are allowed. I have thought long and hard about destroying them but, to date, haven't. The only reason I can think of is that they are part of me. This thread has awakened the realization that I need to do something with them so as not to burden my wife & daughters when I'm no longer here. It's time for me to act and I think I'll contact the National Museum of the United States Army explain what I have. Here's their information:

Customer Service : (800) 506-2672
Email : customerservice@armyhistory.org

If they don't want the photos, I believe I'll destroy them. I know I'll be destroying history but there are so many photos by Nick Utt, Larry Burrows, Horst Faas and many other that are so much better than mine. (An aside, I met Larry Burrows and Host Faas in Saigon)

Thank you, Freakscene, for making me aware of this thread. I hope I haven't offended with my response.

You are exactly the kind of person I hoped would step into this thread, so thank you for joining in.

I sincerely hope that the Army Museum will take your images. By the sounds of it, they may not be politically desirable, but they are an important part of history, captured by someone who was there. And your response here distinctly mirrors the position of both Jim O'Connell and his father in law - they were in possession of powerful but distasteful images, with conflicting feelings about what to do with them. Through your own experience, you've answered the question of why the father in law didn't destroy them himself.

And by the way, the images you showed us in another thread are worth every bit the Uts and Faas' of that time. 🙏

 

[Rangefinder M-P]

Thank you, Archiver, for your response to my post. I've got to say this thread took me by surprise and stirred some too-long repressed thoughts. I just called my wife of 57 years and told her about this thread. She knows about photos that are sealed and when I told her what I will do with them, she said, "I'm glad you've made peace with this. It's time." She's right. Thank you, again.

Mike

 

[skucera]

Please pardon me for interrupting this thought-provoking thread. As Boojum stated, "History is not what we always want it to be but it always is what it is." I have spent the last 55 years trying to reconcile what I saw and did in South Vietnam. For the most part, I've been successful but, in all honesty, I'm still haunted but those ghosts no longer terrorize my dreams.

I read the link Archiver provided. I empathize with with Mr. O'Connell's. dilemma. I, too, have photographs that I've never shown anyone, not even to my father who was a medic in the South Pacific during WWII. They are locked in a place where no visitors are allowed. I have thought long and hard about destroying them but, to date, haven't. The only reason I can think of is that they are part of me. This thread has awakened the realization that I need to do something with them so as not to burden my wife & daughters when I'm no longer here. It's time for me to act and I think I'll contact the National Museum of the United States Army explain what I have. Here's their information:

Customer Service : (800) 506-2672
Email : customerservice@armyhistory.org

If they don't want the photos, I believe I'll destroy them. I know I'll be destroying history but there are so many photos by Nick Ut, Larry Burrows, Horst Faas and many other that are so much better than mine. (An aside, I met Larry Burrows and Host Faas in Saigon)

Thank you, Freakscene, for making me aware of this thread. I hope I haven't offended with my response.

Mike

This is a thought provoking thread, and Mike, your post is thought provoking too. There are many groups in this great country that are interested in images taken in every war. Many organizations will take images, but they really appreciate the context info, and memories, and locations, and dates and times, that may help some future historian build a bigger story than we individuals saw individually. Sometimes, having enough info to create searchable databases can allow historians who can weave together a broader perspective, perhaps from both sides of the conflict, perhaps just from multiple perspectives from American soldiers, sailors, and Marines, to tell a broader story. There may be unpleasant images in your collection, with many unpleasant memories. Communicate that. Please help others understand. It might just help you too, while helping future generations avoid the excesses of our own past.

Still, thank you for your post.

Scott

 

[boojum]

Let me embroider a bit on that post. The one nice thing about war is when it is over. Being out in a field with friend and foe, shots and explosions from all sides and the pandemonium and confusion, well, that is hell. I was blessed and never saw combat. But all of us trained for it, even chaplain's assistants and dentists. Your primary MOS is 111, foot soldier. As a foot soldier you have three jobs: move, shoot and communicate. Those are not paper targets anymore. You are out there killing people who dress differently than you.

There is no way to honestly make it pretty. But assembling the images in a thoughtful manner, one not bound for gore but for illustration can be so useful. I bring this up thinking of Ken Burns' PBS series on Vietnam. Burns presents the story in a pretty unbiased manner, a story of kids with deadly weapons trying to kill each other led by older folks who we so wish had better solutions. Wars are not only hell, they are tragedies. Even the victors suffer.

While dong archival research on the era of the Korean War and the McCarthy Era I ran across some stuff that was pretty interesting. It would have made great headlines when current. It might have provoked interest later. But not all of it added to the narrative. That is where gifted historians can suss out what is central and needed and gloss over or ignore the rest with no detriment. History is more than dates and places.

PTSD, I had a dear friend, George, who was like a father to me. He was on the pigboats (subs) in WW II. They surfaced up near Attu and there was a Japanese fishing boat there. It had a radio antenna. Their orders were to sink any Japanese vessel they encountered which had a radio. It was crewed by a family. They sunk it. The last time I saw George was about ten years ago and he still shuddered talking about that event. And this was one tough guy who had been a soldier of fortune in Persia and who flew night flights from Homestead to Cuba in a Stearman crop duster loaded with counterfeit pesos for an "unnamed US Government agency" and numerous other exciting events. No, he was not a liar. But even the toughest of men can be crushed by PTSD and not seem affected until it is triggered. Lots of folks gave on the battlefield and many are still giving.