In 1971, as American forces hastened their withdrawal from Vietnam, a helicopter was hit by enemy fire over Laos and exploded in a fireball, killing four top combat photographers: Larry Burrows of Life magazine, Henri Huet of Associated Press, Kent Potter of United Press International, and Keisaburo Shimamoto of Newsweek. The remoteness of the crash site made a recovery attempt impossible. "Lost Over Laos" provides an inside look into these events against the backdrop of U.S. operations in Laos during the Vietnam War. Starting around page 166, this book includes the story of how Associated Press correspondent
Mike Putzel and
Major James Newman made a flight over the crash site.
Putzel continued to cover the war in Vietnam and his award-winning career included covering Watergate, the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and the fall of communism. Major Newman was twice nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor. Major Newman's military awards included Distinguished Service Cross (the nation's second-highest award for combat valor), the Silver Star, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and 23 Air Medals.
In 2009, Maj. Newman died and was buried at Arlington National Cemetary on February 18th. These events were captured in the book "Farewell to a Hero" by Mike Putzel with photographs by noted Washington photographer William K. Geiger. Additional photos of Maj Newman
receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and his
funeral at Arlington can be found at
mp.smugmug.com.
Putzel and Newman's exploits were also featured in a
Vanity Fair article in Dec. 1999.
You can read read excerpts and reviews of
Lost Over Laos at Amazon.com - see
amazon.com/Lost-over-Laos-Tragedy-Friendship/dp/B000C4T1QI.
Lost Over Loas is also available using Google Books - see
tinyurl.com/LostOverLaos.
Farewell to a Hero can be ordered online at
www.photographybooknow.com/bookstore/detail/610045
In 2009, Maj. Newman died and was buried at Arlington National Cemetary on February 18th. These events were captured in the book "Farewell to a Hero" by Mike Putzel with photographs by noted Washington photographer William K. Geiger. Additional photos of Maj Newman receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and his funeral at Arlington can be found at mp.smugmug.com.