Conflagration Echoes

 A recent digital collage work of mine; using two emblematic Vietnam War-era images (and other elements). -JF

Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Above: An instant photo I took, 23 June, 2022, at the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial. And this post marks the 14th anniversary of this here blog; which started in the murk and distance of 2008. 

 

Joseph W. Kittinger

I first became aware of Joseph W. Kittinger through a PBS documentary, Space Men. Some numbers from his life: He jumped from a balloon at 102,800 feet, or 31,333 meters (a record-breaking freefall, which stood until recent years); he flew 483 combat missions during the Vietnam War; he survived 11 months in the Hanoi Hilton; and Colonel Kittinger is 88 years old.

Paging William S. Burroughs:

"When I was on that step looking out, I was just amazed at how beautiful it was. It was absolutely beautiful, the colors, the transition from black overhead down to the horizon. It was beautiful and I was stunned with the beauty of what it was. But the same moment, I remembered Dr. Stapp talking about arsenic outside because right outside my hand was death." -- Joseph W. Kittinger, from here. 

Digital collage by JF

40th Anniversary of the End

A. Peter Dewey (photo source) wrote in 1945, in a line seemingly from Joseph Conrad or Graham Greene: "Cochinchina is burning, the French and British are finished here, and we ought to clear out of Southeast Asia." (Dick Cavett's Vietnam made me aware of this quotation.)

30 years later, and 40 years ago, the USA did leave Vietnam.

How to drive fast and not get killed

 

 

 

 

"Anyone who runs, is a VC. Anyone who stands still, is a well-disciplined VC."  -- Full Metal Jacket

 

"Charlie don't surf!"  -- Apocalypse Now