Salazar first cameraman killed since Vietnam

[saigon68]

Salazar first cameraman killed since Vietnam

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/10/27/military/13_11_5010_26_04.txt

By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer

CAMP PENDLETON ---- When Marine Cpl. William Perkins dove on an enemy grenade to save his buddies in Vietnam in 1967, he was the last Marine Corps combat cameraman to be killed in action for almost four decades. That was until almost two weeks ago ---- 37 years later, almost to the day ---- when cameraman Cpl. William Salazar shattered the long stretch of good luck for this select and often-forgotten clique of military professionals


Cameraman's legacy

Being in the middle of the action was Salazar's job, said Capt. Michael Lujan, who heads the Marine Corps "Combat Camera," the unit that trains and places combat correspondents with Marine units around the world. "It inspires us to continue that legacy, that role, that he had," Lujan said in a phone interview Tuesday from his office in Quantico, Va. "His (Salazar's) enthusiasm was unbelievable. He was a wonderful young Marine."

Lujan said combat cameramen differ from their civilian counterparts. They are not just out to get the story, he said. They are combatants, and their footage and photographs are used for intelligence gathering and planning military operations as much as for historical documentation, he said

'From the camera to the gun'

Some of Camp Pendleton's cameramen who recently returned from Iraq said they were integrated into front-line infantry units and were always riflemen first, correspondents second. "It's a delicate balance," said Staff Sgt. Paul Anstine, who was Salazar's supervisor in Iraq and who documented the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He and a few of his men recently gathered at their Camp Pendleton studio to talk about Salazar and their experiences documenting the war in Iraq.

Good article about the people who actually have to put up with and fight the war.