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Fire in the Wind: The Life of Dickey Chapelle
Tribute to the famous American photojournalist Dickie Chapelle - one of the first female photojournalists to cover war situations from the Pacific War to the Vietnam War.
- GenresBiographyWorld War II
408 pages, Paperback
First published February 11, 1992
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February 27, 2014
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the control of fear.” Dickey Chapelle.
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue971... Photo of Dickey as she received the last rites in Vietnam.
In 1992 when the book was published it had not yet been 30 years from the time of death of Dickey Chapelle. This author, (who years before had heard of Dickey), went to great lengths to interview people that were still alive in the late 1980s as she compiled her work. Ostroff first became familiar with Dickey while serving as a fellow with the American Film Institute (AFI) in 1975 by a fellow classmate. The interviews along with the many kept notes (99 journalist note books that Dickey kept along the course of her whole career in a combined 15 crate sort of boxes) certainly provided a wealth of information. Dickey never threw anything way (in terms of notes, letters, statements, etc.) and Roberta Ostroff certainly used this to her advantage – the Acknowledgments section of the book alone references many persons personal to Dickey who provided information for this work. Dickey’s papers today are stored at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. I find a bit of irony that the author had written the introduction to the book on 1 March 1991, the irony for me being that Dickey was well respected by the US Marine Corps and US Army Infantry and 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. She had jumped with the Marines and Army as well as South Vietnamese Forces and Royal Laotian Forces in and throughout the Republic of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; she was still jumping at the ripe old age of 46 up and until the time of her death. Dickey had learned while training with Marines for 3 months in 1955 how to: read a map and use a compass, walk fast, run hard, climb, fall, roll, recognized weapons by sound, follow on a night patrol by silhouette. Ironically she was following the point man on patrol when he tripped the nylon wire that triggered the explosion that killed her on 4 November 1965; she had promised the Commandant of the Marine Corps before her departure on this trip that she “wouldn’t be near point”; she had an uncontrolled sort of instinct to do this sort of thing by this point in her life.
To the book: Dickey Chapelle (ney Georgette Louise Meyer) a woman of inconceivable courage who was on Iwo Jima, had her press credentials revoked during the battle for Okinawa as a result of being too far forward and the only woman with the grunts, would travel the East Bloc Nations with her husband providing goods to the hungry – she landed with US Marines in Lebanon, was arrested in Hungary, later reported the early days of the Cuban Revolution where she noticed Raul Castro’s “Communist Tendencies” before the Communist cat was let out of the box, and got her jump wings with the Army, jumped with Marines and Army in Vietnam. Ostroff brings to life a woman that provided much service to her country and speaks volumes to her credibility of being able to do a job any man could have done (but many didn’t).
As I completed this book it was my simple wish that she could have compiled her notes to a book in her words, in her voice for a modern time. The auto-biography she wrote never materialized to her satisfaction as it went to print during one of her early stints in Vietnam; she even hated the title the publishing company put to it “What’s A Woman Doing Here?” (I’m still awaiting a book to come out on the life of Dr. Fall as I think of it here ~ a book in the life as opposed to the excellent work “Hell In A Very Small Place: The Battle for Dien Bien Phu”.) I enjoyed this book on this woman who was decorated with the Distinguished Service Award from the USMC following her death on 4 November 1965. Though I have tried I have been unable to locate the segment (to hear her voice) on the Jack Paar show on 24 January 1962 or the interview with Mike Wallace on 15 February 1962. In Vietnam she had been met by three young Marines who informed her she spoke with their Father’s on Iwo Jima during the Second World War and this meeting took place in 1962. The part of this book that was difficult for me to read through was the Castro years as it covered two chapters. She became an ardent anti-Communist when after being held in prison in Hungary by the AVO (Secret Police) they no less than three times placed her to a wall and went through firing squad formations – each time firing the rifles with no ammunition loaded unknown to her each time; I sense by the third time it became routine for her.
The life of Chapelle was an amazing one; the book gets five stars for an attempt to cover the vastness of this person’s life. Several parts of this book captivated a close knit feeling I had with Dickey in the course of the story this one located on page 356 sort of sums it up for me to some degree: ‘When Dickey stood under the grapefruit tree in the Hialeah backyard, she thought of her grandparents. Their house in the swank Miami suburb of Coral Gables, a few miles south, where she had been sent by her parents a lifetime ago to keep her out of trouble, also had a grapefruit tree. Her grandmother would shout at her not to eat the unripe fruit because she would get sick. Now, standing in her orange pedal pushers and rubber thongs – the same ones in which she had traipsed around Laos and South Vietnam – she would suck on the citrus, wipe its burning tang from the edges of her mouth, then light a cigarette, since smoking was not allowed inside the house. “Vea em un libre Cuba,” she would say, practicing her Spanish. “See you in free Cuba.”
In total Dickey had so many jumps with the Marines, Army Rangers and 82nd and 101st Airborne that there are too many to gain an accurate total. Patrols are the same thing – too many to count and in one event she trekked more than 180 miles with South Vietnamese Forces led by American Advisors that entailed 13 ambushes on this affair alone. She was becoming quite critical of the US Government censors on Vietnam; I think had she lived long enough to see the war to its conclusion in 1975 she would have been upset with the results as was Dr. Fall before he himself stepped on a landmine while with Marines in Hue.
Lastly, Joe Galloway who was in Landing Zone X-Ray with the battle for Ia Drang that November of 1965 first learned of Dickey’s death when part one of the battle was over – following his own horrific event he broke down and cried and this is referenced in his book “We Were Soldiers Once And Young: Ia Drang, The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam.” The South Vietnamese people, the Hmong, and the American Serviceman and woman all lost their “voice” when Dickey died.
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue971... Photo of Dickey as she received the last rites in Vietnam.
In 1992 when the book was published it had not yet been 30 years from the time of death of Dickey Chapelle. This author, (who years before had heard of Dickey), went to great lengths to interview people that were still alive in the late 1980s as she compiled her work. Ostroff first became familiar with Dickey while serving as a fellow with the American Film Institute (AFI) in 1975 by a fellow classmate. The interviews along with the many kept notes (99 journalist note books that Dickey kept along the course of her whole career in a combined 15 crate sort of boxes) certainly provided a wealth of information. Dickey never threw anything way (in terms of notes, letters, statements, etc.) and Roberta Ostroff certainly used this to her advantage – the Acknowledgments section of the book alone references many persons personal to Dickey who provided information for this work. Dickey’s papers today are stored at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. I find a bit of irony that the author had written the introduction to the book on 1 March 1991, the irony for me being that Dickey was well respected by the US Marine Corps and US Army Infantry and 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. She had jumped with the Marines and Army as well as South Vietnamese Forces and Royal Laotian Forces in and throughout the Republic of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; she was still jumping at the ripe old age of 46 up and until the time of her death. Dickey had learned while training with Marines for 3 months in 1955 how to: read a map and use a compass, walk fast, run hard, climb, fall, roll, recognized weapons by sound, follow on a night patrol by silhouette. Ironically she was following the point man on patrol when he tripped the nylon wire that triggered the explosion that killed her on 4 November 1965; she had promised the Commandant of the Marine Corps before her departure on this trip that she “wouldn’t be near point”; she had an uncontrolled sort of instinct to do this sort of thing by this point in her life.
To the book: Dickey Chapelle (ney Georgette Louise Meyer) a woman of inconceivable courage who was on Iwo Jima, had her press credentials revoked during the battle for Okinawa as a result of being too far forward and the only woman with the grunts, would travel the East Bloc Nations with her husband providing goods to the hungry – she landed with US Marines in Lebanon, was arrested in Hungary, later reported the early days of the Cuban Revolution where she noticed Raul Castro’s “Communist Tendencies” before the Communist cat was let out of the box, and got her jump wings with the Army, jumped with Marines and Army in Vietnam. Ostroff brings to life a woman that provided much service to her country and speaks volumes to her credibility of being able to do a job any man could have done (but many didn’t).
As I completed this book it was my simple wish that she could have compiled her notes to a book in her words, in her voice for a modern time. The auto-biography she wrote never materialized to her satisfaction as it went to print during one of her early stints in Vietnam; she even hated the title the publishing company put to it “What’s A Woman Doing Here?” (I’m still awaiting a book to come out on the life of Dr. Fall as I think of it here ~ a book in the life as opposed to the excellent work “Hell In A Very Small Place: The Battle for Dien Bien Phu”.) I enjoyed this book on this woman who was decorated with the Distinguished Service Award from the USMC following her death on 4 November 1965. Though I have tried I have been unable to locate the segment (to hear her voice) on the Jack Paar show on 24 January 1962 or the interview with Mike Wallace on 15 February 1962. In Vietnam she had been met by three young Marines who informed her she spoke with their Father’s on Iwo Jima during the Second World War and this meeting took place in 1962. The part of this book that was difficult for me to read through was the Castro years as it covered two chapters. She became an ardent anti-Communist when after being held in prison in Hungary by the AVO (Secret Police) they no less than three times placed her to a wall and went through firing squad formations – each time firing the rifles with no ammunition loaded unknown to her each time; I sense by the third time it became routine for her.
The life of Chapelle was an amazing one; the book gets five stars for an attempt to cover the vastness of this person’s life. Several parts of this book captivated a close knit feeling I had with Dickey in the course of the story this one located on page 356 sort of sums it up for me to some degree: ‘When Dickey stood under the grapefruit tree in the Hialeah backyard, she thought of her grandparents. Their house in the swank Miami suburb of Coral Gables, a few miles south, where she had been sent by her parents a lifetime ago to keep her out of trouble, also had a grapefruit tree. Her grandmother would shout at her not to eat the unripe fruit because she would get sick. Now, standing in her orange pedal pushers and rubber thongs – the same ones in which she had traipsed around Laos and South Vietnam – she would suck on the citrus, wipe its burning tang from the edges of her mouth, then light a cigarette, since smoking was not allowed inside the house. “Vea em un libre Cuba,” she would say, practicing her Spanish. “See you in free Cuba.”
In total Dickey had so many jumps with the Marines, Army Rangers and 82nd and 101st Airborne that there are too many to gain an accurate total. Patrols are the same thing – too many to count and in one event she trekked more than 180 miles with South Vietnamese Forces led by American Advisors that entailed 13 ambushes on this affair alone. She was becoming quite critical of the US Government censors on Vietnam; I think had she lived long enough to see the war to its conclusion in 1975 she would have been upset with the results as was Dr. Fall before he himself stepped on a landmine while with Marines in Hue.
Lastly, Joe Galloway who was in Landing Zone X-Ray with the battle for Ia Drang that November of 1965 first learned of Dickey’s death when part one of the battle was over – following his own horrific event he broke down and cried and this is referenced in his book “We Were Soldiers Once And Young: Ia Drang, The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam.” The South Vietnamese people, the Hmong, and the American Serviceman and woman all lost their “voice” when Dickey died.
September 29, 2012
Love, love loved this book. The author brought Dickey to life for me where I was feeling jealous right alongside of her when Margaret Bourke White was getting all the acclaim and Dickey was getting nothing. The 1st woman to parachute w/the Marines, the 1st woman to dig in w/them in a war situation, fashioning her own fox hole to sleep in... I admire her greatly. I even have the fortune to have a friend who, when he was a marine, met her acquaintance!
If your a female photog, you'll like this book & it'll give you great inspiration when the going gets tough.
If your a female photog, you'll like this book & it'll give you great inspiration when the going gets tough.
April 6, 2015
Dickey was a fascinating person. Her own memoir only scratches the surface of who she was. Ostroff digs deep and reveals a much fuller portrait. What makes it even better for me is the face that most of the sources she researched are at my fingertips at the Wisconsin Historical Society!
September 16, 2022
Fire in the Wind: The Biography of Dickey Chappelle (book by: Roberta Ostroff)
I once read this book, a biography, about the American photographer Dickey Chapelle whose real name was Georgette Meyer. She got killed in Vietnam (cause: stepping on a land mine) when she had gone to photograph the Vietnam War. She was a civilian tagging along with the American Army. She got into arguments with army over which photos should be published. Her education at M. I. T was in Aeronautical Engineering. She did not finish though she was very good in Mathematics and Engineering ad Aeronautics and dropped out into Photography. She also went to photography the Hungarian revolt of 1956. I became fascinated by her when I saw a photo of her in Vietnam in the battle field. I tried to find out a out her and learnt she had been sent to cover the Vietnam war for National Geographic. I tried to Find the Two issues of Nat Geo. I found one and looked at it, I never found the other.
I then got this book through the public library in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada: Terry Berry library.
I once read this book, a biography, about the American photographer Dickey Chapelle whose real name was Georgette Meyer. She got killed in Vietnam (cause: stepping on a land mine) when she had gone to photograph the Vietnam War. She was a civilian tagging along with the American Army. She got into arguments with army over which photos should be published. Her education at M. I. T was in Aeronautical Engineering. She did not finish though she was very good in Mathematics and Engineering ad Aeronautics and dropped out into Photography. She also went to photography the Hungarian revolt of 1956. I became fascinated by her when I saw a photo of her in Vietnam in the battle field. I tried to find out a out her and learnt she had been sent to cover the Vietnam war for National Geographic. I tried to Find the Two issues of Nat Geo. I found one and looked at it, I never found the other.
I then got this book through the public library in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada: Terry Berry library.
February 8, 2011
During: Skimming through to get to the part where she is in Vietnam. Brave, brave woman! Gotta like her gutsiness but she seemed to be a bit of a wack-job too.
After: I only skimmed the parts where she was in Japan in WWII and in Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution. Very brave woman. She lived through and saw amazing changes in the world. It's no wonder she was so anti-communist after witnessing the revolution and spending 7 weeks in a Hungarian jail. She was lucky to survive that and it sounds like others didn't fare as well.
A disappointing book in the end. The author does not tell much about the mission Dickey was on when she was killed or the circumstances under which she died. I learned much more from the 2 page spread about her in "Requiem: the photographers who died in Vietnam and Indochina". Glad to have read more about her and about the history of the war, but came away feeling empty handed. It was as though a potential hero was decloseted as having a screw loose.
After: I only skimmed the parts where she was in Japan in WWII and in Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution. Very brave woman. She lived through and saw amazing changes in the world. It's no wonder she was so anti-communist after witnessing the revolution and spending 7 weeks in a Hungarian jail. She was lucky to survive that and it sounds like others didn't fare as well.
A disappointing book in the end. The author does not tell much about the mission Dickey was on when she was killed or the circumstances under which she died. I learned much more from the 2 page spread about her in "Requiem: the photographers who died in Vietnam and Indochina". Glad to have read more about her and about the history of the war, but came away feeling empty handed. It was as though a potential hero was decloseted as having a screw loose.
December 9, 2008
I decided I had to read this book when Dickey Chapelle, a Wisconsin-born photojournalist who was killed in the Vietnam War (the first woman, to boot), was featured in an exhibit on war photographers at the War Remnants museum in Saigon, which I visited in 10/08. The book is well-researched, although it admittedly lacks interviews with persons who knew her best. It gives a decent portrait of the dynamic, marine-loving, bright but naïve, daredevil who became a war correspondent known for taking tremendous risks to get the story. Chapelle had the fortitude to press on despite being up against gender role expectations, the old boys club, not to mention the censors of the US Government.
June 20, 2016
The story of the female photographer Dickey Chapelle. She photographed Marines and other combat troops from WW2 to Vietnam. Being the first woman photographer in some of the areas.
Killed in combat.
(Read for the challenge: read something suggested by someone you just met. Special thanks for the WW2 reenactors at Old Bethpage for this suggestion)
Killed in combat.
(Read for the challenge: read something suggested by someone you just met. Special thanks for the WW2 reenactors at Old Bethpage for this suggestion)
July 10, 2011
Fascinating story of the first American woman journalist killed in combat. A complex, driven and fascinating individual.
Read
August 8, 2011What an amazing, fascinating, woman. I was impelled to read everything I could about her after my friend, Maura Kennedy, cowrote a song with Nanci Griffith about Chappelle. She was a piece of work.
decided-not-to-read
March 27, 2012Something about the style in the first part kind of put me off the book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews