This Day in History: Dickey Chapelle, photojournalist
On this day in 1965, a fearless female war correspondent accompanies U.S. Marines on patrol. Dickey Chapelle had spent two decades following Marines into some of the world’s most dangerous places. They’d come to consider her one of their own.
Chapelle’s path to war correspondent was unusual. She entered MIT at 16 to study aeronautical engineering, but she became fascinated by the Boston Navy Yard and began writing and selling stories to newspapers.
She flunked out of MIT in 1937. She would become a journalist and photographer—then a war correspondent during World War II.
She was initially stationed aboard a hospital ship in the Pacific, but the spunky journalist soon wheedled her way ashore at Iwo Jima, persuading a Marine lieutenant to take her to the front.
She was still young and made a foolish mistake. She found the scene boring and thought she’d get better pictures from the top of a ridge—so she climbed it. She couldn’t figure out why bees kept buzzing by her head.
They weren’t bees, of course. They were sniper bullets.
“That was the goddamndest thing I ever saw anybody do in my life!” the Marine lieutenant scolded as she got down. “Do you realize all the artillery and half the snipers on both sides of this f*cking war had 10 full minutes to make up their minds about you?”
“It was dawn before I fell asleep,” she wrote in her journal, “and later in the morning I was only half-awake as I fed a fresh sheet of paper into the typewriter and began . . . . ‘From the front at iwo jima march 5’—then I remembered and added two words: ‘under fire’—They looked great.”
She finagled her way ashore at Okinawa, even though she didn’t have permission.
After hearing various versions of “what the hell are you doing here?” she ended up before General Lemuel C. Shepherd of the 6th Marine Division. He begrudgingly gave her permission to accompany a medical unit. That lasted for ten days—but only until the Navy found out.
She lost her military press credentials for a decade over that stunt, but the experience had made quite an impression. One Marine, she later wrote, gave her a trench knife when he discovered she didn’t have a gun.
She hung the knife on her belt. “I feel better about you now,” he sighed.
Back home, Chapelle wrote books and articles and covered overseas rebuilding efforts. Finally, though, she got what she really wanted: restored military press credentials.
She covered an uprising in Hungary—and was even imprisoned. She traveled to Algeria and Cuba. She was in Korea, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic—then Vietnam again. She even got her jump wings so she could parachute alongside the troops.
Marines came to her in Vietnam, mentioning that she’d covered their dads during World War II. “With a shock,” she wrote, “I realized I was now covering my second generation of combat Marines—covering them, again, on embattled ground half a world away from home.”
Late on November 3, 1965, she ate dinner at Lt. Gen. Lewis W. Walt’s quarters. She mentioned that she was to go out on patrol with Marines the next day. He advised her to keep her head down and be careful.
“When the time comes for me to go,” she shrugged, “I want it to be on a patrol with Marines.”
She got her wish. The next day, a Marine accidentally triggered a booby trap, sending shrapnel into her neck. The wound was fatal. “I guess it was bound to happen,” she reportedly said.
A year later, a memorial was dedicated near the spot where she died.
“She was half the size of the Marines she followed into combat,” Walt said at that ceremony, “until she spoke; then suddenly she grew in stature, speaking with the authority of a combat veteran—which, of course, she was.”
A note for those who are interested: Some of you might know I am running an experiment in history reels. If you are so inclined, check out my YouTube channel and/or subscribe to those HERE. And MANY APOLOGIES!!!! I promised to post a new reel on Monday night and then (I confess) I flat forgot to do it. Oops. I remembered a few hours too late. The reel is ready, though, and I am going to aim for Friday night. Stay tuned!
Primary Sources & Further Reading:
Charlotte Gray, ‘First to the Front’ Review: A Leading Lady of Journalism (WSJ; Aug. 7, 2023)
Dickey Chapelle Memorial Dispensary (Congressional Record (Jan. 16, 1967) (p. 519)
Dickey Chapelle, What’s a Woman Doing Here? (1962) (excerpt reprinted HERE)
Don Haines, With Her Eyes Wide Open (Vietnam Mag., Aug. 2007) (reprinted HERE)
Inside the Daring Life of a Forgotten Female War Photographer (National Geographic; August 17, 2018)
John Garofolo, Dickey Chapelle Under Fire (PBS Wisconsin’s University Place; October 23, 2015)
John Garofolo, Dickey Chapelle Under Fire (2015)
Neha Thirani Bagri, The first American female war correspondent killed in action battled sexism through her life (Quartz; July 20, 2022)
Wisconsin’s Pioneering War Correspondent: Dickey Chapell (PBS Wisconsin; Sept. 11, 2017)
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