NEW YORK — Ten years ago this week, a U.S. military search team digging into a steep mountainside in southern Laos found camera parts, film, broken watches and bits of wreckageproof that a South Vietnamese helicopter had been shot down there in 1971. It carried four top-rated war photographers and seven Vietnamese soldiers.
A sealed capsule containing the scant human remains found is to be interred today at the Newseum, a new, $439 million Washington, D.C., museum devoted to the history and practice of journalism.
The Associated Press’ Henri Huet, 43; Larry Burrows, 44, of Life magazine; Kent Potter, 23, of United Press International; and Keisaburo Shimamoto, 34, a freelancer for Newsweek, were among the 74 dead and missing Vietnam war correspondents at the war’s end in 1975 — the most news media casualties of any conflict in the 20th century.
Along with the four photographers, the Vietnamese soldiers who perished with them will be recognized at the ceremony: Col. Cao Khac Nhat, Lt. Col. Pham Vi, Sgt. Tu Vu, 2nd Lt. Le Trung Hai, 2nd Lt. Le Ue Tin, Sgt. Nguyen Hoang Anh and one unknown.
