Charles Eggleston

Charles Richard Eggleston (November 1945 – May 6, 1968) was a photographer with United Press International who was killed in combat in Vietnam where he was covering the ongoing war.

Early life

A graduate of Indian River Central High School in Philadelphia, New York, Eggleston moved to Gouverneur after he graduated from Auburn Community College, and enlisted in the US Navy where he became a journalist.

Career

He was twice awarded as a Navy journalist. In 1966, he asked to be discharged, and became a UPI photographer in the country instead. Sometime before April 1968, he was wounded during a mortar attack against Camp Eagle where he was stationed with the 101st Airborne.

Tet Offensive

In May 1968, a jeep carrying five journalists accidentally came across Viet Cong massing outside Saigon during the Tet Offensive. Despite the journalists' attempts to dissuade the startled Viet Cong soldiers, four out of the five were shot and killed.^[1] Twenty-three-year-old Eggleston swore vengeance, and announced his intention to kill as many Viet Cong as possible.

It remains disputed whether he was participating in the May 6th firefight on the Western outskirts of Saigon, or simply photographing it, when he was killed by a bullet to the skull. Most sources agree that he was at least carrying a rifle, if not actually using it. He was the 17th journalist killed in the war. His will had indicated that his possessions were to be given to war orphans.^[2]

On May 17, Time reported his death, stating that he had been photographing South Vietnamese paratroopers in a house-to-house search, at the time of the firefight.^[3] Other sources indicate that reporter Roger Norum was tape recording a conversation with him during the streetfight, and saw Eggleston shot by a sniper while lighting a cigarette.^[4]

Awards

While serving in Vietnam, he was awarded two bronze stars, two Navy commendation medals and South Vietnam's Honor Medal.

References

↑ Mike Smith, In Memory of the Cholon Four, AAP, 23 April 2008. Archived May 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
↑ "Unipresser anecdotes 1961–1970" at the Wayback Machine (archived July 15, 2007), UPI.
↑ "A more dangerous war" at the Wayback Machine (archived August 15, 2007), Time, 17 May 1968.
↑ "Requiem: The death of Charlie Eggleston", Digital Journalist.

Vietnam War correspondents

Print journalists	R. W. Apple Peter Arnett Michael Birch Peter Braestrup Malcolm Browne Wilfred Burchett Dickey Chapelle Robert Elegant Gloria Emerson Bernard Fall Frances FitzGerald Sylvana Foa Joseph Galloway Martha Gellhorn Al Gore David Halberstam Michael Herr Seymour Hersh Marguerite Higgins Takeshi Kaikō Stanley Karnow Donald Kirk Steve Kroft John Pilger Gareth Porter John Sack Murray Sayle Jonathan Schell Sydney Schanberg Neil Sheehan Alexander Shimkin John Steinbeck IV Matthew V. Storin Richard Tregaskis Kate Webb

Photo- journalists	Eddie Adams David Burnett Larry Burrows Robert Capa Gilles Caron Dickey Chapelle Charles Chellapah Neil Davis David Douglas Duncan Charles Eggleston Horst Faas Sean Flynn Chas Gerretsen Barbara Gluck Philip Jones Griffiths Dirck Halstead Henri Huet David Hume Kennerly Catherine Leroy Don McCullin Co Rentmeester Tim Page Toshio Sakai Kyoichi Sawada Dick Swanson Dana Stone Shigeru Tamura Neal Ulevich Nick Ut

Broadcast journalists	Martin Bell Ed Bradley Charles Collingwood Walter Cronkite Murray Fromson Bernard Kalb Peter Kalischer Douglas Kiker Steve Kroft Charles Kuralt George Lewis Ike Pappas Julian Pettifer Bill Plante Dan Rather Clete Roberts Morley Safer Bob Simon Richard Threlkeld Joe Schlesinger

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