Positive identification From the first day I began scanning Charlie’s negatives, I was present
Positive identification From the first day I began scanning Charlie’s negatives, I was presented with the young and fresh faces of so many nameless individuals. For Charlie and the Chieu Hoi team, it has been a high priority to identify the people in Charlie’s photo collection. Spending time with the images usually elicits feelings of hope–and sometimes sadness–when it comes to the fate of the individuals that populate Charlie’s images. We have been contacted by many people that served near Charlie during the war. Helicopter pilots that flew Hornets (a group of Hueys) have contacted us to let us know that they may have crossed paths with Charlie at some point. Other members of units within the 25th Infantry Division have contacted us, and Charlie has even said of some veterans that at some point they may have been “within earshot of each other.” Family members of Sgt. Bledsoe (the subject of what might be Charlie’s most popular photo) have contacted us to say that they immediately recognized him. But there hasn’t been a positive identification of any one of the unknown people in the images… yet. An email from Teri Kehl showed up in our inbox last week with the message: Wondering if you know who the gentleman is on the far left of this photo. My father was in Vietnam at the same time and there is a resemblance. Thank you. Teri had seen the image of the three men solemnly riding aboard a Chinook, and immediately thought it could be her father. Teri provided us with the above images of her father, for comparison, and confirmed that her father, Sgt. William Ballou, served as a rifle squad leader in the 101st Airborne D Division. He served near Cu Chi, where Charlie served, during time that overlapped with Charlie’s 13 months in Vietnam. I would love nothing more than to be able to say with certainty that it is Sgt. Ballou sitting quietly in this image, looking out the cargo sling door of the chopper. Seeing his smiling face in images sent to us by Teri only makes me that much more hopeful that we can at some point say with certainty that it is him. If anyone within our audience can help to positively identify Sgt. Ballou–or anyone else in any of the images–please send us an email at info@chieu-hoi.com. Heartfelt thanks to Teri Kehl for sharing photos and information about her father with us, and for allowing us to share this story with our audience. -Kris Regentin -- source link
#vietnam#photography#photojournalism#positive identification