Giving War a Face: Catherine Leroy

Corpsman in anguish, 1967, © Catherine Leroy

By Liv Stecker

She stood five feet tall, but only with her boots on. She was one of only two female journalists covering the war in Vietnam (the other, Dickie Chappelle, was killed by a grenade in 1965) , and the diminutive French girl was the last thing you’d expect to see parachuting in with American troops, but the 90 pound photographer became the only known accredited photojournalist to accomplish this mission, and with it, capture some of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War that the world would ever see.

Catherine Leroy was raised in a convent in Paris, France, where a boyfriend taught her how to skydive as a teenager. She was enthralled with photojournalism, and at the age of 21 (her age was never confirmed), she bought a one way ticket to Saigon and landed in the war zone with only a few dollars and her small Leica M2 camera in hand. Her goal was to “give war a human face”. On the flight from Paris, she met someone who introduced her to Life magazine photojournalist Charles Bonnay, who helped her get the press credentials she lacked and within days she was on her way to the front lines.

Catherine Leroy, 1967

A licensed parachutist, Leroy jumped with the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade into combat during Operation Junction City in February of 1967. It was in this action, the battle for Hill 881, that Leroy photographed U.S. Navy Corpsman Vernon Wike as he rushed to the aid of a fallen comrade. “Corpsman in anguish” is the third frame of a series that Leroy shot, capturing the unimaginable grief of war. Later, in an interview for the documentary “The Hill Fights”, Wike recounted the moment that Leroy photographed.

“I know there was chaos going on around me, but there was no sound,” he says. “...I knew he didn’t have a chance, but I still got p-----d off when he died.” Leroy describes the aftermath as the corpsman “lost in this nightmare landscape” grabbed the fallen marine’s M16 and charged a Viet bunker alone in a hail of obscenities. The fallen marine was a man called “Rock”, a New Yorker from Puerto Rico. Earlier that day he had told Wike that he only had 60 days left “in country” - his deployment in Vietnam.  

Two weeks later, Leroy was wounded near the demilitarized zone where she was embedded with a Marine unit. The next year, the photojournalist was captured by the North Vietnamese Army during the TET Offensive, along with another French journalist. Somehow, the blonde girl talked them into releasing them and before they left their captors she interviewed them and took photographs for a story in Life magazine which she wrote. Leroy kept in contact with Wike over the years. The Navy veteran came home and struggled through readjusting to civilian life as an icon of an unpopular war and the death it brought.  

Along with the American Soldiers lost in countless battles across the globe, the warriors who come home to continue fighting the demons they have encountered are still here among us. Veterans like Wike who have lost more in a small window of time than many of us lose over a lifetime are very much alive and still at war against less obvious enemies. Rarely have civilian audiences been given the intimate glimpse of war that Leroy provided. What the photographer captured in the face of Wilke on the hill in Vietnam is as close to the horror of war as any of us will ever come, and in this, Leroy accomplished her mission. She gave war a face, and it was the face of an American Soldier.

U.S. Navy Corpsman Vernon Wike, Catherine Leroy

Sniper’s Aim: Dan Litzenberger and his training ranch

By Liv stecker

“Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong, and morally straight, and I will shoulder more than my share of the task, whatever it may be, one hundred percent and then some.” - Army Ranger Creed

Dan Litzenberger grew up in Spokane with a family that was not into guns. Even though his grandfather had fought in World War II and he had an uncle in the Coast Guard, guns and the military were not part of the family dynamic through his childhood. But when he graduated from high school in 2007, Dan enlisted in the Army right away.

 Going through basic, one of Dan’s drill sergeants told Dan he should consider a ranger contract. At first Dan laughed it off, but after thinking about it, decided he would give it a try. “I had always thought special operations guys like ranger and Navy SEALS were like super humans.” He laughs, relating that it took some persuading to convince him that he had the potential for it.

 He was assigned to the 2nd Ranger Battalion, 75th Regiment and sent to Fort Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, where he underwent ranger training. “You were physically and mentally tested to limits you didn’t think you could go to,” he says about Ranger training, “but you can’t quit, and there is no problem you can’t solve.”  Part of Ranger training included SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) School where Rangers are trained to withstand torture and avoid capture in the field.

 After ranger training he was assigned to one of the three SOF (special operations forces) units, tasked with the elimination of high value targets and terrorist cell interruption. Operating in 2 man attachments to ranger platoons, snipers learn to adapt and work in a constantly changing dynamic. “We learned to cut our own path to success,” says Kyle Kowalski, one of Dan’s closest friends and a fellow ranger who went through training with him. Rangers are trained to think outside the box and adapt and overcome any obstacle to their mission.

 Dan served 6 deployments, but it wasn’t until 2010 when he watched an Army Ranger sniper in action and decided he wanted to join the sniper section. “I fell in love with learning the science and math behind it - it’s kind of like an art form.” Dan says of long range target shooting. After two sniper deployments, Dan was medically retired from the rangers in 2016, leaving the service with an Army Commendation Medal with Valor for his performance during the Global War on Terror. “It wasn’t because I was a sniper that always had success,” Dan says of his time overseas, but every missed target became an opportunity to learn and grow as a sniper and as a soldier.

 Dan has brought that passion for learning and teaching back to civilian life at Bull Hill Training Ranch, where his vision for training active duty military and law enforcement snipers as well as civilian long range shooters is unfolding. A lack of live training opportunities on moving targets is one of the drawbacks to traditional military sniper schools. One of Dan’s missions is to provide a place where moving targets as well as a changing environment and challenging terrain provide a well rounded training facility for long range shooters of all types. The mountains north of Kettle Falls never fail to disappoint in terrain and weather changes, so all that was left for Dan was the moving targets and a rapidly growing facility where service members, veterans and civilians are able to congregate and train.

 For Dan, getting past the traditional training and instruction methods for long range target shooting is the goal. “There is more than one way to do it,” he says, and he enjoys the challenge of proving out new approaches to training. The vision of Bull Hill Training Ranch as Dan sees it is to add to the training spectrum of long range shooting. “It’s about creating a place where experts can come together to train in real terrain and build a toolbox.” He says, intent on working with the best of the best to discover new ways to achieve success as active duty snipers, LEOs, vets and civilians.

 In addition to a training ground, Dan also hopes that Bull Hill Training Ranch will eventually become a sanctuary for veterans to come and experience the “best kept secret in the Northwest” that is the rugged landscape of along the upper Columbia River. Along with shooting competitions, recreational outlets including horseback riding, hiking, fishing on the river and guided hunts will be part of the outdoor therapy available to vets and their families in the future. Already this vision is becoming a reality as several local veterans from around the area will be coming to participate in the second annual Historical Shoot Out this weekend at Bull Hill Training Ranch, will fully paid sponsorships contributed by local and national businesses and individuals.

 If you are interested in checking out what is going on at the Training Ranch, spectators are welcome at the Freedom Has a Face Historical Shootout from April 20-23rd. The range will be open for all shooters to try out the guns used in the historically based shooting scenarios, including a Barrett 50 cal. sniper rifle that participants can shoot at a real truck for a by-the-round donation, an M-1 Garand, AK-47, multiple AR models and much more, as well as food and drinks available, all for donations toward the Freedom Has a Face foundation, in memory of Tommy MacPherson, a Ranger who served with Dan and Kyle and who was killed in action in 2013. For more info about the Historical Shoot Out or Dan’s project at the Ranch check out their Facebook page Bull Hill Training Ranch, or you can email info@bullhilltrainingranch.com