{"id":24204,"date":"2017-09-10T14:20:21","date_gmt":"2017-09-10T14:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/09\/10\/first-us-female-war-correspondent-to-die-in-combat-named-honorary-marine\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:33:45","slug":"first-us-female-war-correspondent-to-die-in-combat-named-honorary-marine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/2017\/09\/10\/first-us-female-war-correspondent-to-die-in-combat-named-honorary-marine\/","title":{"rendered":"First US female war correspondent to die in combat named ‘honorary Marine’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When mortar shell shrapnel exploded from a booby trap that hit Marines close to Chu Lai, Vietnam, a combat photographer was near the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A civilian buried with full military \u00adhonors, Wisconsin native Georgette \u201cDickey\u201d Chapelle was the first female war correspondent to die in combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently she was celebrated with the title of honorary Marine at the United States Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association banquet in San Diego. In October 2016, Commandant Gen. Robert Neller approved the title for the \u00adaward-winning war correspondent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was a five-foot-tall trailblazer who covered conflicts from World War II, to the Cold War, and finally, to Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A writer and photographer, Chapelle\u2019s photos had been featured on the covers and pages of Life, National Observer, \u00adCosmopolitan, Reader\u2019s Digest and National Geographic magazines.<\/p>\n\n\n

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She was the first American female war correspondent to die in combat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

One of her photos, which originally appeared in National Geographic in 1962, shows Vietnamese children responding to mortar fire. Another, which won the 1963 Photograph of the Year Award from the National Press Photographers Association, depicts Marine crew chief Nelson West and South Vietnamese soldiers on patrol near Vinh Quoi, Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq veteran and Coast Guard Reserve captain John Garofolo \u201cheard about Dickey Chapelle completely by accident,\u201d and was enticed by her story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapelle was with Marines on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and met Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd, \u201cwho allowed her to travel with a Forward Marine Medical Unit, until the Navy realized she wasn\u2019t on the hospital ship she was assigned to and pulled her off the island and withdrew her military press accreditation,\u201d Garofolo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years later then-Commandant Shepherd \u201chelped her regain her military press accreditation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his book \u201cDickey Chapelle Under Fire,\u201d Garofolo shares stunning photos \u2014 comprised after 24 years of digging and research \u2014 taken by Chapelle during her time as a combat photographer embedded with U.S. troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It follows the story of how she \u201cabandons her studies at MIT, marries, and persuades the Navy \u2014 despite objections from every side, and at the time, meager credentials \u2014 to let her cover the front lines from the Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChapelle overcame gender bias, a cheating husband, and ultimately earned the respect of the military and her media peers \u2026 in pearl earrings and cat-eye glasses, no less,\u201d according to a media release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wisconsin Historical Society houses some forty thousand photographs and written letters and works from Chapelle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It includes a series of personal letters from then-Commandant Gen. Wallace Greene, whom she was quite close with \u2014 Greene had once given her an Eagle, Globe and Anchor pin from his uniform, Garofolo said. At times, Chapelle even talked Vietnam strategy with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImagine a reporter today writing the commandant of the Marine Corps and giving him advice on military tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commandant sent Chapelle a letter after she was hospitalized for an injured knee after a parachute jump with Army Airborne troops:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted to hear this and to be reassured that you will soon be \u2018fit for duty\u2019 and in condition to try to outrun my Marines again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, I want you to know that I and the many other Marines who claim you as a special friend are thinking of you and wishing you the speediest recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night before her death, she had dinner with Lt. Gen. Lewis Walt, Marine Commander in Vietnam, Garofolo said, and \u201ctold him that when she dies, she wanted to be on patrol with the Marines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n