Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/06/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The picture has Kyle's signature incongruity, if that is the right term. The context is the attraction, for me. Cheers Hoppy -----Original Message----- Subject: [Leica] Re:korean war vet Excellent book idea. Not sure I like this photo, but I'm sure you'll get plenty more images. I love going to the DDay Museum here just to hear the veterans talk about the war. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kyle Cassidy" Subject: [Leica] [img] korean war vet > Some of you may know that I'm batting around this idea of doing an > extended series of portraits of members of the military and their > tattoos. > > I give you Robert Berns, USMC, July 12, 1950 - July 11, 1954, Item > Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division whom I ran > into this weekend while I was walking out of a store. This is why it's > always good to have your Leica with you. > > http://www.kylecassidy.com/warpaint/robert.jpg > > > "I have an Marine Corps bulldog up here, wearing a hat, and down here > there's a flag that says USMC underneath it. They're kind of faded now, > I got them fifty years ago. > > It was some time near the end of 1950. We were getting ready to go to > Korea, we went to San Diego to pull liberty. As I came out of a store, > there's a tatoo parlor. It was like peer pressure. Everybody was going > to get them because we were Big Tough Guys going to Korea. We were all > 17 years old. > > They wouldn't put them on both arms, they said "there's a story going > around that if you're captured and they see these tattoos, they'll cut > off your arm and make lamp shades and stuff out of them." I don't know > if that was true or not, but that was what he was telling us. That's why > both of mine are on the same arm. I don't know how true that is, he > might have just been trying to scare us a little bit. > > We got aboard the ship the first week in January. I had my 18th birthday > on there -- not that I remember it, because I was sea sick. > > Korea was cold. It's hard to explain, it was a landscape like you never > saw, it was all hills -- whenever there was a low spot that was level, > that was rice paddies. Which would come in handy, the rice paddies were > great in the winter, because they froze over and that gave you a level > spot for the helicopters to come in and take out the wounded. Otherwise, > it was very difficult to land there. winter had it's drawbacks, but in a > way it was helpful to us. In the summer, I guess it was just like any > other time. If anything moved out in front of you you were allowed to > shoot at it, if it was out in front of you, it was fair game. Now, you > didn't deliberately shoot at civilians -- you could tell them by their > dress. And the Chinese, you could tell them apart, they had a different > look about them. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information