VN179 Taking Care of a Buddy

More than a few of K&C’s ‘VIETNAM’ series have been based on actual photographs taken during or just after the bloody firefights that erupted all over South Vietnam in the aftermath of that 1968 TET Offensive of January and February 1968.

The photo in this case was taken by a young draftee photographer John Olson who at the time was working for ‘Stars and Stripes’ the Army’s own publication.

Olson carried five cameras shooting ‘black and white‘ film for Stars and Stripes and colour film for images he might sell elsewhere.  Soon the full colour versions appeared in LIFE magazine and that’s where I first remember seeing it.

In all of the photos John Olson took of these figures they were all placed on top of an M48 tank however both figures can just as easily be put on the ground or even on some of K&C’s other ‘VIETNAM’ vehicles.