US Military Combat Camera History & Stories Museum

MCCHSM has accomplish to bring 3 new board of directors.  We are now seeking fundraisers.  If intereseted, please forward your cover letter and resume to [email protected]  Deadline is 1 October 2021.

We have the privilage to have Mr. Maurice Hicks, former NFL player to be on our Board of Directors.  After, we had a great meeting he has provided interesting topics for what the museum complex should be like and to include.  We really appreciate everything he mentioned and we welcome to our Board of Directors.

The 3rd International Combat Camera Association The 3rd International Combat Camera Association will hold a conference/reunion in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 1-3, 2008. The theme is "Tempt Fate in 08" and will focus on the impact combat photography has on telling the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps story. Topics include the future of Combat Camera as a supporting capability of Strategic Communication, impact of photograph and video imagery during battles in Iraq, and the story of the only combat photographer to win the Medal of Honor.

Contact: Bruce Bender Email: [email protected].

COPYRIGHT 2008 Air Force Historical Foundation

COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

http/findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3101/is_2_55/ai_n29440850

Farewell salute to LTC Dan McGovern USAF ret.

—elder statesman in the band of brothers

(Sadly LTC McGovern passed away at age 96 as this account was going to press.)

Meet the late Lt Col McGovern: http://www.combatcamera.org/newsreleases/convention2005.php

ICCA: http://www.combatcamera.org/

The ICCA founders, Mr. Joe Longo and Mr. Bill Rogister have said that "the combat cameraman ...is the true historian" who risks his or her life to go into the action and document the events of war. Indeed, the impact of a photograph (motion media or still imagery) taken in combat or during conflict, is powerful. These photographs can evoke emotions, effect change, document history, provide legal guidance, establish a training regiment, provide damage assessment, and much more. To quote the words of BGEN Mark T. Kimmitt, spokesman for the military coalition in Iraq, "optics are everything, visuals are everything" when it comes to military operations. As combat photographers, we have a preeminence on the battlefield as a war fighting tool for military commanders.

Our organization strives to recognize and honor the achievements and the mission of combat photographers. We do this by encouraging membership participation to further the knowledge of combat photography through displays, briefings, etc. Our work is shown all over the world in museums, movies, documentaries, books, newspapers, and publications.

We encourage authors, editors, producers and curators to provide photo credits so that the work of the photographer is remembered.

Following in the footsteps of those before me, I now humbly carry the torch of this organization; we have many lofty aspirations to attain to.

It is my privilege to lead the ICCA, and I'd be honored to have you join our organization. Download and fill out an application here.

Best Regards,

Bruce M.Bender

President

International Combat Camera Association

The brave ones fought with weapons.

The crazy ones fought with cameras.

On October 12, 1967 during Operation Medina, a major reconnaissance operation in the Hai Lang National Forest in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, Cpl. William T. Perkins Jr. made the ultimate sacrifice when he hurled himself upon an enemy hand grenade to save the lives of his fellow Marines. Bill Perkins Jr. is the only combat photographer in our nation’s history to receive the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest award for valor.

Thirty years later, his friend Craig Ingraham set out on a journey to discover what happened that day in the Hai Lang forest of Vietnam and along the way, he discovered so much more.

Meet Cpl William T. Perkins: http://aboveandbeyondfilm.com/

ICCA: http://www.combatcamera.org

Can an International Award-Winning Vietnam-era Combat

Photojournalist Produce Fine Art Photography? Yes

.

Sam Bass is a former Navy Chief and international award-winning combat photojournalist. His photo works have been described as stunning and provocative, images that challenge the viewer with one stimulating visual experience after another.

Sam received his grounding in classic commercial photography at the Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, California; and honed his creative photographic and news writing skills at Syracuse University in New York where he graduated from a highly intensive photojournalism program designed specifically for the Navy.

“After Syracuse I was assigned to South Vietnam and operated throughout Vietnam and Southeast Asia as a Navy combat photojournalist over a three-year period from 1967-1970,” Sam said. “During this period, I was also briefly assigned to the United Nations Command in South Korea to document North Korean violations against the armistice.”

In 1972, Sam was selected Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the U.S. Defense Department based primarily on his Vietnam photo works.

“This internationally prestigious award was presented annually at the University of Missouri following a world-wide competition of photojournalists and news photographers,” said Sam. “I was privileged to share Photographer of the Year honors with a National Geographic photographer that year.”

A truly innovative photojournalist, Sam has always treated his photography as an art.

During his combat tours in Vietnam, Sam’s photo works also received the respect of his peers. One such colleague was Horst Fass, an AP photographer and Pulitzer Prize laureate.

“I am impressed with Sam’s artistic photographic eye and his sensitivity,” said Fass. “Few combat photographers actually contribute to the advancement of photography. His photographs are definitely a contribution and have deepened my understanding of the Navy and it’s operations in Vietnam.”

Over the years, Sam’s images have been widely recognized and published, particularly his Vietnam-era images. But in addition to his ability and experience as a photojournalist, Sam has developed broad experience in all areas of commercial and fine art photography as well. He is a master small format photographer, and although skilled with PhotoShop, he is a master of the small format black and white darkroom as well.

“After leaving the Navy in 1974,” Sam said, “I spent many years as a freelance photojournalist producing images for all marketing communications applications for a variety of regional and national clients.”

Expanding beyond his photo works, Sam has also designed and conducted a series of photojournalism-based creative communications workshops and seminars to share his unique style and technique with amateur and professional photographers, as well as non-creative professionals.

“Although I love color, my real passion is black and white,” said Sam. “The best photographers strive to be Masters of Light, Shadow, Composition and Time. We attempt to balance these elements to create the most powerful, thought-provoking color and black and white imagery, remembering always we are but stewards of an instant in time.”

Sam and his wife Cheryl moved to Kingsport, Tennessee from Kentucky in June, 2009. Cheryl was born in Kingsport while Sam is a California transplant. Sam splits his time between cataloguing and digitizing his considerable photo works library while adding new, exciting images.

Sam Bass

1657 East Stone Drive, Suite 127 • Kingsport, Tennessee 37660

423.276.1338 •[email protected]

http://imagesbysambass.com/SBsam.html

Air Force combat camera team discusses role of media in military

Posted 7/9/2009

by Ian Graham

Special to Armed Forces Press Service

7/9/2009 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- The media has played a major role in every American military conflict, from the use of newspapers and pamphlets to stoke the American Revolution to embedded journalists in the Middle East.

But a story often lost in the mix is that of the military journalists; those men and women in uniform whose weapon of choice isn't an M4 carbine with a laser sight, but a D3 camera with a 17 to 200 mm lens.

Members of the Air Force's combat camera team spoke with bloggers July 7 about their role in documenting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. By shooting photographs, recording video and writing news articles, the Airmen of the combat camera team provide a unique view inside the world of the military during wartime.

Capt. Phil Ventura, combat camera officer in charge; Staff Sgt. Shawn Weismiller, a photojournalist; Staff Sgt. Stacia Zachary, the team's print journalist; and Senior Airman Brian Economides, the team's videographer; spoke about their work and training.

"Our job is to document, but our job is also to tell a story and to tell a compelling story," Sergeant Weismiller said. "And throughout my career in the military, we've -- or I've been taught, as well as rest of the photographers in the military -- that our job is to tell a story and to tell it with emotion and to tell it in the best light as possible, not to just strictly look through the viewfinder and click the shutter. Every time we take a picture, there's a purpose and there's a direction."

The combat camera team can be attached to one of many units, from combat engineers in the mountains of Afghanistan to infantrymen in Baghdad, so the members have to be ready to act as wartime Airmen to defend themselves at any time.

"As far as what kind of equipment we take for protection, you need your helmet. You need your body armor. You need to be able to carry a combat load, which [consists of] seven M4 magazines and two M9s. And then you also carry your sidearm," Sergeant Zachary said. "So at any given point, I weigh 110 pounds; I'm carrying 150 pounds on me. So we travel with a lot of gear."

Captain Ventura said the look and training his team has when they go into a mission will help them be accepted by the unit they're covering.

"But we focus very much on being an asset and not a liability to those that we work with, and our gear lends ourselves to that, as does the training we show up with," he said. "So that is a huge enabler to our mission."

Sergeant Zachary said some of the missions the team has recently participated in are: a humanitarian airlift where relief supplies were delivered to Pakistan's Swat Valley, operational missions with the combat, search and rescue teams embedded with Provincial Reconstruction Teams and patrolling a local mullah in Baghdad with security forces Airmen.

Sometimes, those missions hamper what the cameramen can do with their equipment, so they have to improvise to get the shot they need. Sergeant Weismiller said he's come to prefer using natural light, in no small part because using a flash during night missions can affect night-vision users as well as give away a group's position.

Airman Economides said he uses a special lens called an Astroscope to get night-time video, but before getting it, he had to make due with what he had.

"There have been instances where I simply took night-vision lenses that you use to see and I have rigged it to the front of my lens and taken pictures that way," he said.

For Airmen with basic training in reporting, photography or videography, one of the most gratifying experiences is seeing their work distributed globally alongside veteran journalists working for major news outlets, as well as within the military for mission-related purposes, they said.

"It's humbling to see how many outlets use our products; not just for news media," Sergeant Zachary said. "Operational commanders and leaders throughout the Department of Defense rely on it to make informed decisions. Our pictures, videos and stories can often be used for intelligence, reconnaissance, engineering, legal and other operations involving the military services."

The team's imagery and stories have appeared internally on Department of Defense web sites such as af.mil, defenselink.mil, defenseimagery.mil. Their work has also appeared on blogs, in international newspapers and on television news programs.

(Ian Graham works for the Emerging Media Directorate of Defense Media Activity.)

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123157821