Milwaukee photographer returns to battlefields of Vietnam for 'Crossing the DMZ,' a book that remembers Marines who died there
Five decades after he served in Vietnam as a Marine, Milwaukee's Dennis Darmek returned to the country with his cameras — and with photos of fellow Marines who never made it home.
For his new book "Crossing the DMZ," Darmek asked local Vietnamese people who live near those battlefields to pose with photos of those young Marines. Darmek will talk about his book and experiences during an in-person launch event at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at Milwaukee's Boswell Books, 2559 N. Downer Ave. Admission is free, but registration is required at boswellbooks.com/upcoming-events.
"Typical of most Americans serving in Vietnam, I knew virtually nothing about the Vietnamese," Darmek writes in his book's introduction, recalling himself as a 19-year-old Marine. "Our role was complicated and contradictory: We were to protect and defend some Vietnamese and destroy or defeat others."
Through this photo project, Darmek connected with many local people. Lacking a common language, he often worked out arrangements through "exaggerated pantomime and cards with my background information translated into Vietnamese."
In the photo accompanying this article, Ngo Thi Diem Anh holds a photo of late Pfc. James Anderson near the Citadel in Huế. During a battle near the village of Cam Lo, Anderson, who had just turned 20 and had been in Vietnam only two months, absorbed a grenade blast with his body to protect other Marines. He was the first Black American to receive the Medal of Honor in Marine Corps history, Darmek writes.
Ngo, who holds Anderson's photo, is a guide who leads tour of battlefields near the DMZ.
Contact Jim Higgins at jim.higgins@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Photographer returns to battlefields of Vietnam for 'Crossing the DMZ'
