American Cinematographer - September 1968 - 28

THE VIETNAM WAR
AS FILMED BY

U.S. AIR FORCE CAMERAMEN
How war heroes behind the cameras film the action of
war heroes in front of the cameras in Southeast Asia
By

DICK

CHERRY

Tactical military aerial photography
was born in World War I. While the
pilot of that conflict's cloth-covered
bi-plane tried to dodge rifle and ma¬
chine-gun fire from the trenches be¬
low, the bombardier riding behind
him lobbed a bomb overboard by
hand.
Then he reached down between his
knees for a box view camera, stood
up, and, leaning over the cockpit
cowling, quickly snapped the shutter
to record his target hit.

throughout the theater.
Conceivably, reported Col. James
P. Warndorf, men of the 600th Photo
Squadron could produce a transpar¬
ency and a print only 45 minutes after
a "bird" sets down at one of the ma¬
jor bases.
Usually, of course, it takes a little
longer. But footage shot in North and
South Vietnam one morning is avail¬
able for screening by the commander
of the 7th Air Force that evening.
Within 24 hours, each individual

came vice commander of the central¬
ized AAVS at Norton Air Force Base.
When Warndorf first went to Viet¬
nam in June of 1966, the Air Force
photography complement there con¬
sisted of a handful of men divided
among a few bases. When he left,
there were 480 men at 17 bases.
About 80 of these are cameramen.
The others, including some civilian vol¬
unteers, are lab and mechanical tech¬
nicians.
Perhaps of greater significance is

(LEFT) S/Sgt Thomas Sartick shoots action from an HH-43 helicopter over Vietnam. (CENTER) $/Sgt Peter Dmytryk watches S/Sgt Ray J. Gutzler
boresight a Milliken camera that is installed in the camera pod of an F-4C at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. (RIGHT) A/2C John B. Shreve installs
forward station mounting bracket in the gun camera blister under the nose of an F-4C at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base.

Today, the state of the art is nearly
as sophisticated as the supersonic air¬
borne weapons systems it serves. To
supply "instant intelligence" on Viet¬
nam missions, for example, color mo¬
tion pictures shot by Air Force fighterbombers are being processed in the
field.
Five air-transportable trailer units
have been set up on air bases at Tan
Son Nhut and Da Nang in South Viet¬
nam and at Korat, Utapao and Takhli
in Thailand. T-39 jets provide daily
courier service between these sites
and the other Air Force installations

658

pilot can review his own film from the
last mission completed. Since the men
normally fly only every other day, this
means any mistakes they may have
made can be brought to their atten¬
tion before they have to go up again.
Colonel Warndorf, who coined the
"instant intelligence" tag, was respon¬
sible for perfecting the necessary pho¬
to program in the field.
Both he and the 600th Photo
Squadron are part of the Air Force's
Aerospace Audiovisual Service, which,
in turn, is part of the Military Airlift
Command. In June, the colonel be-

the fact that, during his last month in
the war zone, men of the 600th Photo
Squadron were processing 25,000
black-and-white prints a month and
850,000 feet of motion picture film.
This production was being accom¬
plished at only two of the trailer units
which operated around the clock. The
other three were set up later. But the
monthly output total for the first two
can be compared to the 50 million
feet of serial film which were shot
during World War II.
Prior to the Vietnam theater reor¬
ganization which Warndorf supervis-

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, SEPTEMBER 1968

American Cinematographer - September 1968

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