Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin

From the advancing column of earthworks, Captain Reginald G. Ponsford III, tries by radio to direct counterbattery fire, while the other Marines aboard lie still, flattening themselves and waiting. Red Beach, Cua Viet, September 1967. The white streaks through the image are the result of static electricity inside the camera caused by the monsoon storm and the enemy air-bursts.