Determined Combat Photographer Marine Did Not Give Up

Female Marine combat photographer paves the way

We Are The Mighty
Jessica Manfre
Mar. 04, 2020

The Marine Corps has the longest boot camp out of all of the armed forces and arguably the toughest to graduate from. In 2004 when she wanted to join, only 6% of enlisted Marines were female. Kirk-Cuomo did part of the physical fitness test right then and there in front of that recruiter.

Erin Kirk-Cuomo dreamed of being a combat photographer. She interviewed with multiple companies and publications within the civilian world, but none of them were willing to hire a female photographer for that position.

So, she decided to join the military.

She chose to go into the United States Marine Corps. When she opened the doors to the Armed Forces recruitment office in 2004, she was ready to raise her right hand and do just that. But Kirk-Cuomo was told she couldn't be a combat photographer, because she was female.
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Afghanistan Veteran Shocked After Being Photoshopped by ISIS

US Army vet who served in Iraq and Afghanistan shocked to discover he's in an ISIS propaganda video 
Daily Mail UK
By TOM WYKE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:19 EST, 18 December 2015

One of the photos is an iconic image taken in 2006 in Afghanistan by photojournalist Richard Nickelsberg, showing two men with bandages wrapped around their heads.

Two wounded soldiers were being taken back to the nearest hospital following the ambush. Will Hammond features in the video (top right, holding a gun)

American army veteran Will Hammond shocked to see himself in ISIS video
Footage uses a 2006 photograph of Hammond from Afghanistan tour days
Mr Hammond said he was surprised by the quality of the video's graphics
He compared it to a National Guard commercial

An American army veteran was shocked to discover that he had unknowingly featured in an ISIS jihadi propaganda video.

Will Hammond, from Alberta, Canada, was told the staggering news by a friend and was shown the footage on social media.

The 35-year-old, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was 'shocked' as 'it's not every day you find yourself in propaganda.'

Titled 'No Respice', the video was produced by one of ISIS's top media branches, al-Hayat Media Center. They produce many of the top high definition films with slow motion features and animations.
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Hard Earned: The Military Photographs of Stacy Pearsall

Stacy Pearsall: An Iraq War veteran whose weapon was a camera (Review)
Syracuse.com
By Katherine Rushworth
Contributing writer
October 28, 2015

In the image titled, "New Dawn, June 22, 2003," one of the most powerful and sensitively composed images in the exhibition, Pearsall positions herself beneath the wing of a transport plane; a silent observer cloaked in the veil of night as she captures the solemn movements of US Air Force personnel transferring a soldier from an ambulance to the plane. The dark figures in the middle ground are deeply silhouetted against an orange and yellow sky in the background; her composition a study of lights and darks, angles and lines, figures and forms.

This photo by soldier/photographer Stacy Pearsall, is titled, "Breaking Dawn, June 22, 2003." It portrays the transfer of a wounded soldier from an ambulance to an Air Force transport plane. Pearsall took the photo during one of her three tours of duty in Iraq. An exhibition of Pearsall's photos remains on view at the SUArt Galleries through January 24, 2016.
(Stacy L. Pearsall)

Stacy Pearsall served three tours in Iraq, but the shots she took were with a camera.

"I carry a gun," Pearsall has stated, "but my real weapon is my camera."

Through January 24 visitors to the Syracuse University Art Galleries in the Shaffer Art Building can take in an impressive array of about two dozen photographs taken by Pearsall during her tours in Iraq and a series of portraits comprising her more recent "Veterans Portrait Project," which she began following her retirement from service.

The show, titled "Hard Earned: The Military Photographs of Stacy Pearsall," was curated by Theresa Moir, a dual degree candidate in Museum Studies and Art History at Syracuse University.
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Air Force Staff Sgt. Pearsall Turns Lens Into Healing PTSD

Veterans Portrait Project new passion for former combat photographer 
The Post and Courier
Prentiss Findlay
November 27, 2014

"The physical pain was one thing. I was trained well enough to just kind of suck it up and keep going. I just wasn't prepared for the emotional anguish I was going to feel," she said.

Retired Army First Sgt. Eugene D. Smith enlisted in
1966 at the height of the Vietnam War.
He retired in 1992.
He was photographed for the Veterans Portrait
Project in St. Louis. Stacy Pearsall

Stacy Pearsall prepared to focus her camera on veteran David Ball as she softly sang "Let It Go" over and again, a tune from the Disney movie "Frozen."

She recently completed a year of coast-to-coast travel for her Veterans Portrait Project.

In 33 cities, she photographed men and women who served their country including a 99-year-old Bataan Death March survivor.

In West Ashley, she added another veteran to the list of more than 3,000 for whom she has done portraits. She and assistant Cali Barini set up lights and other equipment in Ball's garage where he was photographed.

It was a good day for Pearsall. The post-traumatic stress disorder that can keep her at home in Goose Creek was at bay.

Pearsall said that she is getting better emotionally.

The portrait project has been a saving grace for her. 

"Four or five years ago I wouldn't be able to sit in this room where we are sitting. I would be buried in the corner over there. I've been pushing my comfort zone to get myself out of this repetitious funk because that's what PTSD does to you," she said.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Pearsall was wounded in 2004 and 2007 during tours of duty in Iraq when improvised explosive device blasts hit armored vehicles in which she was traveling. She received the Bronze Star for her actions helping rescue wounded soldiers. 
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Vietnam Veteran "redefined gratitude" for Corpsman

Semper fi: Vietnam veteran salutes corpsman who saved his life
High Point Enterprise
Jimmy Tomlin
Aug. 02, 2014
ARCHDALE

For Welch, though he may not have realized it at the time, a new journey was just beginning. The day he was injured — Jan. 25, 1968 — redefined his life.

And that newspaper photo, which ran the next day, redefined his sense of gratitude.

One day in late January 1968, the High Point Enterprise published a somewhat grisly, front-page photograph of a wounded U.S. Marine, lying flat on his back at a first-aid station in South Vietnam.

The young soldier’s gritty face reflected the anguish he was in as a medical corpsman tended to his left ear, which had nearly been ripped from the Marine’s face by enemy rocket and mortar rounds.

“Shocked And Wounded,” the caption read, explaining that the corpsman was talking quietly to the injured Marine to calm him.

For most readers, it was just another grainy, black-and-white war photo — an Associated Press dispatch from a divisive conflict being staged some 9,000 miles from North Carolina.

For one High Point family, though, the photo hit close to home. The injured soldier, though not identified in the caption, was their son — Lance Cpl. William Michael “Mike” Welch.

LAURA GREENE | HPE
Marine Corps veteran Mike Welch, of Archdale, tracked down the corpsman who saved his life in Vietnam more than 45 years ago.

“Yeah, my dad saw it in the paper and recognized me, but he didn’t show it to my mother until about a week after I got wounded,” says Welch, now 65 and living in Archdale. “He was afraid my mom would flip out and have a heart attack or something.”

Joseph Grayson Welch tried desperately to find out what had happened to his son — and whether he was even still alive — all the while keeping the newspaper from his wife, Mildred, and hoping nobody else would recognize their son in the photo and call it to her attention.

One day, finally, a cab pulled into the Welches’ driveway on Brentwood Street — a universally understood sign that they were about to receive a telegram from the military about their son. To their great relief, Welch had not died, but the telegram reported he had sustained “fragmentation wounds to the left ear, neck, both hands, back and both buttocks, with an open fracture of the left arm.” Hostile mortar fire, the telegram said. His condition was listed as “serious,” his prognosis “guarded.”

Subsequent telegrams provided medical updates — and some measure of comfort — for Welch’s parents, who are now deceased.
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Vietnam Combat Photographer shares history for healing

Photo exhibit helps Vietnam veterans heal
ArkLaTex
10/30/2013

For decades the photos, John Hosier Jr. took during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 70s were only seen by family members. In 1999 at the urging of his daughter, Hosier, Jr., who served as an Airborne Ranger and then combat photographer displayed several photos for classmates at her school. The exhibit which started with just enough items to cover one table now fills an entire tent with over 300 photographs and dozens of displays that feature American and Vietnamese weapons and memorabilia.

Hosier Jr. along with retired USMC veteran, Bob Heuman will be at the State Fair of Louisiana with their 'Through the Eyes' exhibit until Veteran's Day. The Missouri residents circle the country between Memorial Day and Veteran's Day each year. They say the stories other war veteran's share when they visit the exhibit help them cope with post traumatic stress issues they continue to live with.
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Camp Lejeune videographer receives MOH Vietnam Combat Photographer William T. Perkins, Jr.

Lejeune videographer to receive coveted award
JD News
By THOMAS BRENNAN
Published: Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Albert Carls was told he had won a coveted award before anyone mentioned he was even nominated.

“I’m still in awe about winning,” said Carls, a 31-year old Marine sergeant from Sacramento, Calif. “It really hasn’t hit me yet.”

Carls will receive the Cpl. William T. Perkins award today on July 24at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland for his video-journalism work done in Afghanistan from April to May of 2012. His video, Going Forward in Helmand, featured Marines from 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, conducting combat operations during Operation Enduring Freedom.

The award is in memory of the corporal who jumped on top of an enemy grenade during Vietnam and became the only combat photographer to ever be awarded the Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest award for valor.
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Cpl William T Perkins, Jr

WILLIAM T. PERKINS, JR., USMC (DECEASED)

Medal of Honor Citation

William T. Perkins, Jr., who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in Vietnam in 1967, was born 10 August 1947 in Rochester, New York. In elementary school he moved with his family to California and graduated from James Monroe High School, Sepulveda, California, in 1965.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve 27 April 1966 and was discharged to enlist in the Regular Marine Corps 6 July 1966.

Upon completion of recruit training with the 2d Recruit Training Battalion Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, he was promoted to private first class 22 September 1966. Transferred to the Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California, he underwent individual combat training with the 3d Battalion, 2d Infantry Training Regiment.

From October 1966 to January 1967, he served as a photographer with Headquarters Battalion, Marine Corps Supply Center, Barstow, California. He was promoted to lance corporal 1 January 1967. For the next four months, LCpl Perkins was a student at the Motion Picture Photography, U.S. Army Signal Center and School, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. In May 1967, he was transferred back to Headquarters Battalion, Barstow, California.

In July 1967, LCpl Perkins served as a photographer with Service Company, Headquarters Battalion, 3d Marine Division and was transferred to the Republic of Vietnam. He was promoted to corporal 1 August 1967. While serving as a combat photographer with Company C, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division during Operation Medina, he was killed in action on 12 October 1967.

A complete list of his medals and decorations include: the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the Presidential Unit Citation, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with one bronze star, the Vietnamese Military Merit Medal, the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.

Overexposed: A Photographer's War With PTSD

The images I see everyday to understand what the troops go through are only there because a photographer risked their lives to capture them. I hate the images I see and some of them haunt my dreams. This is an important article to read to understand the price some of them pay to record what generations will study.

Overexposed: A Photographer's War With PTSD
The Atlantic
ADAM MCCAULEY

DEC 20 2012

Photojournalists strap bulletproof vests to their chests, steady 60-pound packs on their backs, and hang camera equipment from their shoulders before trekking into the world's most dangerous environments. They follow marine units, rebel militias, and protesters -- stride-for-stride -- into the field, through crumbling neighborhoods and down crowded streets. There, unarmed and exposed, they take pictures of combatants and the afflicted: civilians suffering in battle, hospitals straining to cope with the wounded, and the communities within which conflict lives.

Their industry rewards intimacy, often driving photographers closer to the sharp edge of conflict. But after capturing those last breaths and cities laid waste by violence, these photographers are left to scroll through the day's shots before wiring the most gripping images to newsrooms around the world.

Some photographers try to lose themselves in the technical elements of their images: the exposures and f-stops, saturation and white balance. These aspects allow a modicum of control. The most successful are praised and rewarded for their work. The events that shock their humanity, serve as fuel for their professional career. But sometimes, when trauma weighs too heavily -- when those recorded moments become too 'decisive' -- photographers internalize what they've seen. Like soldiers, photographers can carry these wars home.
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