Larry Burrows haunting pictures of Vietnam heal the souls

After growing up surrounded by veterans meeting the man I would spend the rest of my life with didn't seem that odd at first. My Dad was a Korean War veteran and all of my uncles were WWII veterans. I didn't know how much different it would be with Jack. I had no clue what my Dad was talking about when he said "He's a nice guy but he's got shell shock." My Dad tried to explain it as well as he could but I had to learn more.

That was in 1982. No internet to search on, I headed to the library every chance I had. Jack sure wasn't ready to talk about it and tell me what happened. It wasn't the words so much as it was all about the pictures. They pulled me in and grabbed ahold of my heart almost as Jack did.

Most of the ones I saw were taken by Larry Burrows, but I didn't know anything about him. All I knew, all I had to know was those pictures were a part of Jack's life and eventually would become part of mine.

Larry Burrows' Vietnam Photos Still Haunt Us 47 Years Later
Huffington Post
Posted: 11/01/2013

Wounded Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Purdie (center, with bandaged head) reaches toward a stricken comrade after a fierce firefight south of the DMZ, Vietnam, October 1966.
(Larry Burrows—Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images)

In October of 1966, the Vietnam War had already been raging for nearly 11 years. Thousands of troops were still fighting, and in their midst a courageous photographer risked and ultimately lost his life documenting the horrors of one of the longest wars in U.S. history. As LIFE magazine wrote of Larry Burrows in a 1971 issue:

He had been through so much, always coming out magically unscathed, that a myth of invulnerability grew up about him. Friends came to believe he was protected by some invisible armor. But I don’t think he believed that himself. Whenever he went in harm’s way he knew, precisely, what the dangers were and how vulnerable he was.

Burrows had died that same year when his helicopter was shot down over Laos, together with three other photographers. Their tragic deaths are a harrowing reminder of the acute danger war correspondents face in doing their jobs, and of the endless dangers that armed forces and civilians face in the midst of violence.

For those left at home, there is little that conveys the horrors of war as thoroughly as photographs such as Burrows'.
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When you look at the picture of the Marines, what do you see? You see the body wounded but do you see the emotional connection between the wounded Marine and his friend on the ground? Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Purdie didn't care about his own wounds. Someone he cared about was wounded too. That is the way they were and still are.

All these years later you can still see it in their eyes. Spending most of my free time with veterans I see it all the time. They are connected, bonded beyond what any single word could ever come close to expressing. It goes beyond love. They were all willing to die for each other.

A lot of veterans ask me "where was God" when all that was going on and I'll point out some of the pictures like this one. I tell them "He was right there." When they could find that depth of compassion for someone else in the midst of hell, God was there. When they could reach out their arm to comfort, shed a tear, offer a prayer or kneel by the side of their "brother" God was there.

Look at these pictures and know that depth of love is what gave them the courage to do what they had to do. They did it for each other.

These pictures have done more than record history. They have recorded what they all needed to be reminded of. Why they risked their lives was for the sake of someone else and that kind of unselfish love few others know. These pictures heal the soul more than any words I could ever say.

Larry Burrows and the other photographers did not know how healing their pictures would be so many years later.