Ba Xuyen province, South Vietnam, August 1962: Soldiers of the 1st Vietnamese Airborne Battalion jump out of a helicopter into a muddy, waterlogged field near a canal village. The soldiers were airlifted by helicopters of the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps to the southern regions of the country to conduct military operations against the Viet Cong there. U.S. advisor Capt. John F.C. Kenney accompanied the battalion.

Pictured here is a scan of the original 1962 print created by Stars and Stripes Pacific’s photo department to run in the print newspaper. As all pre-1964 Stars and Stripes Pacific negatives and slides were unwittingly destroyed by poor temporary storage in 1963, the prints developed from the late 1940s through 1963 are the only images left of Stripes’ news photography from those decades. These include images from America’s early engagement in Vietnam. Stars and Stripes’ archives team is scanning these prints to ensure their preservation.

Looking for Stars and Stripes’ coverage of the Vietnam War? Subscribe to Stars and Stripes’ historic newspaper archive! We have digitized our 1948-1999 European and Pacific editions, as well as several of our WWII editions and made them available online through https://starsandstripes.newspaperarchive.com/