Photos From the Vietnam War: Lost and Found

Alan Taylor
December 11, 2014
20 Photos
In Focus

Charlie Haughey was drafted into the US Army in 1967, and served a tour of duty in Vietnam with the 25th Infantry Division 2nd Battalion 12th Infantry, as a rifleman. While serving as a point-man for a rifle company, Charlie was commissioned to be the new battalion photographer, and ended up shooting nearly 2,000 poignant photos over the course of 13 months while he served with his rifle company. After returning home, he put the negatives in boxes, and didn't return his attention to them for most of his life. In the fall of 2012, a chance encounter in Portland, Oregon, brought the negatives out of dormancy, and into a film scanner, and the photo collection was digitized and cataloged. A team of volunteers assembled and prepared a show of 28 images, which attracted worldwide press and thousands of visitors, and produced connections with surviving veterans of the 2/12th Infantry. Since the photo show, Charlie has reconnected with members of his unit, many subjects of the photographs have been identified, and the same team of volunteers has been working on a new book of photos, which they are now crowdfunding. The book, titled "A Weather Walked In", will contain 114 photographs, and will be accompanied by a iPad book of nearly 150 photos with audio captions by Charlie. Charlie and his team have been kind enough to share the following photos from the project with us here. Please check out the crowdfunding page, or follow the project on Facebook.

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Members of a rifle platoon ready themselves in the field during the Vietnam War. This is one of nearly 2,000 photographs shot by photographer Charlie Haughey, a member of the Army 25th Infantry division, between 1968 and 1969. When he returned home, the photographs were boxed up for the next 40 years, only now being rediscovered, digitized, and made available to the public. #

© Charlie Haughey

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A civilian boy rides his bicycle on a barbwire-laden main supply route. Charlie states that many of these civilian children were often carrying information on American forces' whereabouts to Viet Cong forces. #

© Charlie Haughey

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Left side - Charlie: "Pierre Issot was Frenchman born and raised in the rubber plantations of Dau Tieng. He filmed both sides of the Vietnam conflict with 16mm cameras, and made a living selling the footage to press outlets." Charlie encountered Issot on several occasions in the field. Right side - A Vietnamese civilian boy in front of Charlie's lens. Charlie frequently photographed civilians, with whom he developed a unique and trusting relationship. #

© Charlie Haughey

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Photographer Charlie Haughey, in a photo taken by his brother Jim, poses with a Rapala knife. #

© Charlie Haughey

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Left: An Army Sergeant Major poses for a portrait. Right: A Chinook helicopter brings water to a night laager site. #

© Charlie Haughey

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Charlie regularly shot photos - like this striking portrait - which he knew would never be printed in Army publications. #

© Charlie Haughey

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Charlie Haughey (left) and PFC Terrence Eggen meet for the first time in September of 2014 in Portland, Oregon. Charlie gifted Terrence with a print - made in Charlie's rudimentary darkroom in a base in Vietnam - of Terrence in the field. The print was boxed up for 45 years before Terrence took ownership of it. #

© Charlie Haughey

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