Finding a Piece of My Past

It’s not much of a secret that I served in the Marine Corps or that I was a combat photographer in Vietnam decades ago.  While many of the photos I shot are in the National Archives, most of them are simply listed as “Defense Department Photos.”  For those that don’t know, the National Archives is the U.S. Government’s collection of documents that records important events in American history. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the Government agency that preserves and maintains these materials and makes them available for research.

Page 21; Photographs of Marine Corps Activities in Vietnam, 1962-1975 (B/W)Today, while Googling myself, I came across an entry which referenced a photo I shot almost 40 years ago.  Sadly, I don’t personally recall anything special or particular about this photo or the people in it, but the point is that I am credited (by name) as the photographer.  So, forgive me for smiling in the knowledge that  famed Civil War photographer, Matthew Brady and I have something in common. We both were war time photographers that have credited photos housed at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Click on the photo on the left and visit Footnote.com which makes these archive records available to the general public for genealogy purposes.

Footnote.com

5 Comments

  1. MM

    That’s really amazing. 😀 *still remembers the JL alternate universe story you wrote about it* Are these things you could see in person if you went to DC?

  2. I think so. The job number AMD-2990-1-70 on the caption sheet was record number the photo had when it was sent to Marine Corps photo archives from Vietnam. The number A373697 is the number the Marine Corps gave it when they added the photo to the USMC Archives and when they sent it to NARA. I think if I looked for photo 127-GVB-339-A373697, I’d find it. So short answer: I think so. 🙂

  3. JC

    taken almost a full year before i was born…

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