NAVY PHOTOGRAPHERS IN VIETNAM

About the Book

The continuing story of the fictional adventures of a Navy Combat Camera team covering action in Vietnam. Their assignments include documenting, in still and motion pictures, the various actions by Navy and Marine units fighting in-country and on the surrounding seas. Their grip on keeping their sanity in an insane environment depends on hanging onto their sense of humor while fulfilling their photo missions under very difficult conditions.   

About the Author

The author, Ken Bumpus, is a twenty-six-year navy veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. In Korea and Vietnam, he served as a navy photographer/journalist documenting marine, navy-UDT/SEALs, SeaBees, and navy riverboat operations. He participated in the Inchon Landing in Korea, in 1950, and was in Iwon on the eastern coast of North Korea supporting the winter withdrawal of the marines from the Chosen Reservoir in 1951. During his three tours in Vietnam, he traveled the country from the southern delta to the DMZ and points east and west, photographing and writing about the brave actions of our navy and marines. His stories and photos have been published in the media throughout the world. For his service in Vietnam, he was awarded the Navy Combat Action Ribbon and the Navy Unit Commendation Medal. On returning from his final tour in Vietnam, he was assigned to the Naval School of Photography in Pensacola, Florida, as phase supervisor of the Advanced Photo School. Ken’s final duty took him to the US Naval Academy, where he was promoted to master chief. He served out his last three years as staff photojournalist, becoming the navy’s senior enlisted photojournalist-designate at the time of his retirement in 1973. He followed up his navy retirement by serving another eight years, for the navy, as a Civil Service photographer at the Naval Recruit Training Center in Orlando, Florida. When the center was closed during the Base Closure fiasco, Ken was hired to run the photo department of the Seminole County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office. He is a life member of the National Press Photographers’ Association and the National Association of Naval Photography and is a member of the Disabled American Veterans, Armed Forces Top Enlisted Association, and the Fleet Reserve. Master Chief Bumpus took final retirement on reaching his sixty-fifth birthday in 1992. He now fills his days photographing and writing for his personal pleasure.