Someone sent us this link from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel last night on Facebook about the female photojournalist Dickey Chapelle. I’d never heard of her before now, but I guess she was kind of a big deal through the war years from World War II until she died in Vietnam, when she was on patrol with Marines and the fellow in front of her triggered a mine.
In anticipation of the 50th anniversary next year of Chapelle’s death, the Milwaukee Press Club is inducting her into its hall of fame on Oct. 24. A book of her photos will be published next spring by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. A playwright in California is writing a play about her. The Milwaukee Press Club is working with University of Wisconsin graduate students on a project to track down military members and journalists who interacted with Chapelle.
Chapelle put herself into harm’s way over and over, covering the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa during World War II, and traveling to Algeria, Panama, Lebanon, Hungary, Cuba and Vietnam on assignment for National Geographic, Cosmopolitan, National Observer and other publications. She was captured by Russians while covering the uprising in Hungary in 1956 and held for 52 days, writing an article for Reader’s Digest about spending Christmas in a Hungarian prison.
Born in Milwaukee, Georgette Meyer began calling herself Dickey because she admired polar explorer Admiral Richard Byrd, whose nickname was Dickey.
I’m kind of embarrassed that I’d never heard of her, but I am glad I read about her in this article. I recognize some of the photos at the link, though.
I heard of her probably 30 years ago when my brother was reading her book “What’s a Woman Doing Here?” Amazing woman, and a great photographer.
Jonn, you shouldn’t feel badly about not knowing of her. She was killed so early in the war, a little more than a month before I arrived in country in ’65, that few GI’s who eventually served there knew of her.
She was better known by the Marines, whom she most often accompanied, as she had since WWII. Probably the best tribute one could give her was that she was the female Ernie Pyle. As her comment about being capable of “pissing standing up” indicates, she was, like Pyle, willing to get down in the mud and the blood with the grunts.
If I didn’t learn another thing from TAH, this would be enough. After reading the thread, I said, who? And then I started searching. This woman was amazing. She graduated high school at 16 and was accepted to MIT! She dropped out, picked up a camera, and went to work. She was assigned to cover nurses in the Pacific but ended up covering Marines in battle. In fact, the Marine Corps League has a “Dickey Chapelle Award” since 1967. Now, why wouldn’t some bright light in Hollywood make a movie about her, instead of some fictitious females in uniform? I wonder if she is even mentioned in Women’s Studies courses.
Mentioned in women’s studies courses? I doubt it, 2/17 AirCav.
I knew about her before I ever went into the Navy. She broke ground for herself, outdid her male colleagues by sticking around long enough to get the entire story instead of leaving after a week with the surface stuff like they did.
These silly bitches would look down their noses at her, because she was her own person, not some semblance of their idiot stereotyping, you see.
Hey Ex, in an earlier post didn’t you say that Dickey Chapelle was the one who inspired you to get into photography in the military?
Yes, I did. She was exactly that.
I have read about her.
A great woman, a great American and a great journalist.
There was a screenplay a few years ago. Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt’s production company was planning a film about her–starring Aniston as Dickey, but when they split, the project was shelved.
I think, in large part, rights issues with her photos have kept her out of the spotlight (rather than the lefty conspiracy Ex-PH2 suspects). The Wisconsin Historical Society will be publishing a long overdue book of Chapelle photographs soon.
If you really want to know what she did, get “Fire In the Wind”, her bio by Roberta Ostroff.
She was with the Sea Swallows in Ba Xuyen province in Vietnam, as well as with US Special Forces at Ban Hat Bay on the Nam San River in Laos, in 1961.
Thanks for the heads up on the book. I will definitely check it out.
She was an amazing woman and is one of my heroes. During WWII, she was frustrated not to be allowed to go onshore with the Marines at Iwo Jima. She initially made up for it by photographing everything she could of the wounded being brought back to the boats, including in surgery; it was so hot in the surgery that she arranged a sort of sling from the ceiling (rafters? been a long time since I read about it) so that she could keep shooting from that position no matter what. She went on to follow her beloved Marines all over the world.
Her last words after being hit by the shrapnel and having last rites administered to her by the chaplain also accompanying the platoon were, “I guess it was bound to happen.”
Adding, there is a prize-winning photo out there of her receiving last rites. A French war photographer, Henri Huet, took the photo, and after her death her body was accompanied by an honor guard of 6 Marines. She was given a full Marine burial and was both the first war correspondent killed in Vietnam, and the first female journalist killed in action. Her life, and her death, are both personal inspirations to me.
The photo can be seen at http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/dickey-chapelle-the-lotus-eater/ (I know nothing about the blog I found it on, but I’ve seen the photo before, and it’s a good sized use of the image).
Made me cry, I am not ashamed to say. Thank you. I will learn more about her–and inform others.
Yes, a very poignant photograph indeed. A visceral reminder of “The Last Four Things.”
Requiescat in Pace
AirCav: She was fiercely anti-communist and supported our efforts in Vietnam. That right there is enough to get her made into an “un-person” by the lefties. Oh, she was also jailed by the Soviets for 7 weeks after covering the Hungarian Uprising in 1956.
If she was a leftist who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era there would have been a dozen movies made about her, half of them starring Meryl Streep.
Believe she was also portrayed once in an episode of Quantum Leap? Been many years since I saw that episode; someone may have to correct me.
close, they did a “based off” character.
it’s the one where Sam leaps into his brother’s SEAL Team>
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/11/quantum-leap-the-leap-home
“A Marine honor guard escorted her body home from Vietnam. On the first anniversary of her death, a monument was erected near where she was killed. The Marines who dedicated the memorial marker included these words on the plaque: She was one of us and we will miss her.”
For those who did not see the story and image … It is worth the look and contemplation.
http://iconicphotos.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/4582195513_866d49ae0f_z.jpeg?w=584
Thanks for the book info. It’s available through Amazon. The complete title, for others, is Fire in the Wind: The Life of Dickey Chapelle.
I also found a song about her elsewhere. It was written by Nanci Griffith and is called Pearl’s Eye View (The Life of Dickey Chapelle) Here’s a link to the song. Just hit the “Play All” button when it comes up:
http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/song?q=Nanci+Griffith+Pearl%27s+Eye+View+%28The+Life+of+Dickey+Chapelle%29
Wow amazing woman
Wow. Hardcore. Been a couple of no shit hardcore MFR’s that have been honored forever on TAH lately. Goes to show, it isn’t the patches or the accolades that truly measures a man. It’s the miles he walks in life. (replace he with she in this case, it’s all the same). Thank you for posting the links and the article.
Amazing woman, and an amazing journey.
Thanks for sharing.
I remember hearing and reading about her when I was in the Army and the Battalion photographer in Alaska.
She was a brave woman and is a credit to all the real journalists of those days.
She would kick ass all day long if she saw what her profession has turned into with the TMZ & Jerry Springer version of what is called journalism today…
All of my respect and admiration for Dickey Chapelle. Way ahead of her time in photojournalism and brave to the core. It’s way past time for her to be recognized for her work, which still lives today.