Working at FLC

by John Krill

It was surreal - flying into Da Nang, Vietnam, in an American Airline's 727. The silver birds. Coming in from Okinawa was like taking a trip from Burbank to San Francisco on one of the old PSA Electra's. I wasn't landing in Vietnam but in San Francisco for a day of shopping with a girlfriend just before Christmas. Only it wasn't. Not San Francisco but Da Nang. Not for a day of shopping but for 5 months as a Marine combat photographer. Except there wasn't any combat for me. Surreal.

It got real at FLC, Force Logistics Command, located at Camp Jay K. Books. When I checked-in with the NCOIC, a gunny, of the ISO office all I got was a grunt. The Captain in charge, a mustanger, didn't come out of his office for a greeting. I never saw the captain after that even though I worked only 20 yards away. When he left a week later he didn't say goodbye to any of the photographers.

The Equipment

My first job was cleaning out the storage container we had sitting next to the photo-lab. This turned out to be boring, sweaty work because of the heat not the labor. I didn't do anything but move items around in the container for the day. But it was very much worth it. Got a Navy corpsman's first-aid bag for my effort.

Everyone I knew had read David Douglas Duncan's book I Protest!. What was important about that book was in the back pages where Duncan describes how he used one of these first-aid bags to carry film, cameras, and accessories.

So now I had a good water-resistant bag to carry cameras and film. I have never found anything as good as that bag to carry camera gear. Still looking for a replacement.

You can see what the bag looks like. It's the third picture on this page. That's Steve Addington with the bag.

I had that bag until '92 when it was stolen in a house burglary. The guy stole money, cameras and that bag. When the cops called to tell me they caught the guy the only thing I asked was "Did you find the bag?" They didn't.

Because of General Lewis Walt the Marine photographers in Vietnam had Nikons with 35mm, 50mm, and 135mm lenses. Marine combat photographers remember General Walt with great affection. The story is that on his arrival in Vietnam he had gone to the Marine photographers and asked them what they needed here in Vietnam? They told him and he delivered. The legend is that Headquarters Marine Corps wasn't happy about this. We were.

My problem was that my own personal Nikon and it's lenses were still in Okinawa. So until they arrived I needed something for my own work. To the PX. What I bought was a small Olympus Pen FT. This little classic used 35mm film but took double the pictures of a 35mm camera - 72 instead of 36 and 40 instead of 20. Still have and occasionally use this little beauty.

Once my own Nikon arrived I usually carried the Pen FT, a Marine Nikon with the 35mm lens, my own Nikon with a 28mm lens and the 50mm and 135mm lenses. The two Nikons were carried around the neck and the rest in the bag with as much film as I could cram into it.

Within a short time I stopped carrying the 135mm lens. I just never used it. I didn't know about Robert Capa's motto, "If your pictures were not good enough, you were not close enough", but that's the way I felt. Also trying to hold the 135mm steady, aim, and focus just took to long.

I continued to carry the 50mm lens but considered the 35mm lens to be my normal lens. I rarely used the 50mm. It was more of a backup lens. Something happens to the 28mm or 35mm lenses I could switch to the 50mm. I never needed to but it was comforting to know it was there. Same for the Pen FT. It was primarily a backup camera. It's real value came when I was doing the Hometown News Releases.

I still have that Nikon F. It was purchased by my dad in '59 and sold to me for $125 in '66. It's now in retirement.

The Crew

The photo-crew at FLC was small. Only 5 or 6 when I got there and was reduced to 4 or 5 by the time I left.

Sgt. Nixon was in charge of the lab when I arrived. He had re-enlisted on condition he became a photographer. So he had no experience with photography but he was a good supervisor. He knew how to delegate responsibility. But he was only there for about 2 months. From late February '69 until the middle of May '69 we had no one above corporal in the lab. The week I left a gunny-sgt arrived.

As for the photographers there was an interesting cross-section of Americans. I was the oldest one there. I turned 25 two months after leaving Vietnam. I think I was even older than Sqt Nixon and our new OIC of the ISO office - a young captain. The captain was a recent graduate of one of the Oregon schools.

We also had another young sergeant who did nothing but sit on his ass the entire time he had left in Vietnam. I think he was upset he didn't get the supervisor position that Sqt Nixon took. He wouldn't go into the field or work in the lab. He did nothing. I was told he went from boot camp to the photo-lab at MCRD San Diego. I have no idea what, if anything, he knew about photography.

Other than the lazy sergeant we all got along just fine. The one advantage I had was my experience. For 3 1/2 years I work almost every day as a photographer in the Marines. Using a camera was second nature and I loved working in the darkroom. Once Sgt Nixon determined I knew what I was talking about he and I set about getting the lab in a better working condition.

The problem wasn't the quality of the work. In fact is was very good. The problem was no air-conditioning.

No Air-Conditioning

The air-conditioning wasn't working. The door into the photo-lab was left open. With the door always open a fine red sand covered everything in the building. Also with no air-conditioning there was no force airflow in the darkroom making it almost impossible to get any work done during the daytime hours. We were using floor-standing fans to get fresh air into the darkroom.

So when Sgt Nixon asked me what the first thing we needed to do that answer was get the air-conditioner working. This is where that large stockpile of Kodachrome film really helped.

The first week I was at FLC Sgt Nixon had shown me the air-conditioned storage locker the photo-lab had at another location on the base. Besides the Polaroid film there was a great quantity of color slide film. Both Ektachrome and Kodacrome. So we used the Kodachrome as payment to anyone who would fix the air-conditioner. Turned out to be the Koreans from the SeaBee camp across the highway from FLC.

Also included in the storage locker was E3 chemicals to develop the Ektachrome film. So the Ektachrome was used by the photographers for their own work. For some unexplained reason the ISO wasn't interested in doing any color work.

So the Koreans came by and fixed the air-conditioner. The repair involved replacing a 4-inch wire that was cut by scrap-metal from a rocket attack. So for one pack (12 rolls) of Kodachrome we had a working air-conditioner.

Not to worry there was plenty of Kodachrome left to bargain for other items we may need in the future. Like cases of beer. Lots of beer. We ended up with a bunker filled with beer. And since the bunker's temperature stayed around 68 degrees we always had plenty of cold beer. Once we had a large stash of beer we started charging 20 cents per beer at our Friday Happy Hours. Other sections supplied items such as steaks. We then used the profits to get more beer. War is hell.

So with the air-conditioner working work could get back to normal daytime hours. This resulted in another problem. Photographers were getting sick from going in and out the cold air-conditioned photo-lab to the very hot Vietnam sunshine. So it was decided that half the crew would work in the lab while the other half work on photo assignments. The crew that worked in the photo-lab would have their lunch delivered to them. The captain approved of the plan. Everyone in the ISO office, reporters and photographers, helped in getting lunches to the working lab crew. We even got a ride back from the commanding general once.

One reason this plan worked is because there were always those Marines that were not confident in their skills as a photographer and much preferred to work in the darkroom where mistakes could be corrected.

I spent most of my time in the field but on occasions I did put my time in the darkroom. Didn't matter to me I loved all of it. But if I had my choice I would work in the field during the day and in the darkroom at night. And that's what I did for most of my 5 months at FLC.

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