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<\/a><\/p>\nWhile I was in the Air Force, more than three of my four years were dedicated to the Castle Air Force Base Valley Bomber.\u00c2\u00a0 As the Valley Bomber\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s photographer, I got tons of experience making visual images to tell stories.\u00c2\u00a0 It was easy for me to listen as the story subjects explained their job or department, its functions and operations.\u00c2\u00a0 As they talked, visual ideas would instantly pop into my mind about how to tell their story.\u00c2\u00a0 The process was uncomplicated, uncontroversial, and simple.<\/p>\n
Now that I was in the world of photojournalism, I worked very hard to make the truth my mantra.\u00c2\u00a0 Most subjects are controversial to one degree or another.\u00c2\u00a0 Objectivity is essential.\u00c2\u00a0 Achieving objectivity is an internal struggle that requires understanding my personal feelings while truly remaining open to the reality and facts I see.<\/p>\n
The Modesto Bee provided me with some great mentors.\u00c2\u00a0 Both Chuck Rodgers and Forrest Jackson instilled in me that we owed it to our readers to be truthful.\u00c2\u00a0 They would kid me a lot, saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry.\u00c2\u00a0 Only a couple hundred thousand people will see your work.\u00c2\u00a0 If you make a mistake there will be phone calls.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
On my way to the assignment, a load of issues were going through my head.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of my family has been in the military, so it was common knowledge in the family that using soldiers as riot control is dangerous.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to glamorize the lethal approach to riot control, but I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to make the guardsmen look bad in any way.\u00c2\u00a0 I knew that they were young men just doing their duty.\u00c2\u00a0 At the same time, my military training told me that these infantrymen would be battle-trained and not prepared for civilian riot control.\u00c2\u00a0 I concluded that my approach would be to show the training as seriously and accurately as I could.\u00c2\u00a0 The images would tell the story and readers could draw their own conclusions.<\/p>\n
Lucky for me, I had learned from my dad to be straightforward with everyone.\u00c2\u00a0 When I got to the Armory I talked to the 1st<\/sup> sergeant.\u00c2\u00a0 He gave me full access to the training (after hitting me up about how I could join the National Guard and make some extra cash).\u00c2\u00a0 Out on the field, there were troops with fixed bayonets moving forward on a skirmish line.\u00c2\u00a0 Purple smoke grenades were being shot from M14 grenade launchers to simulate tear gas.\u00c2\u00a0 So I took off running to the center of the skirmish line.\u00c2\u00a0 The troops kept coming and I kept shooting, using my Nikon high-speed thumb motor drive system.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything came together in a few moments and then it was over.\u00c2\u00a0 I photographed some other images including a practice interaction with a crowd of civilian-dressed guardsmen, but I knew that the skirmish line shot would tell the reader how dangerous it is to use lethally-equipped, battle-trained troops against our own citizens.<\/p>\n Back at the paper, the page one editor decided to use my single shot of PFC David Dean pointing his bayonet at me.\u00c2\u00a0 As I shot, PFC Dean stopped and held his bayonet toward me.\u00c2\u00a0 I only got a couple of clicks before he lowered his weapon as the Spec4 gave the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153at ease\u00e2\u20ac\u009d command.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, being a good photojournalist, I asked him his name and rank.<\/p>\n In those years the Modesto Bee used \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bee Photo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for most bylines rather than the photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name.\u00c2\u00a0 On rare occasions when the editors felt images warranted a personal byline, the photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name was used.\u00c2\u00a0 PFC Dean ended up on A-1 and they gave me the personal byline with three more images on A-4.\u00c2\u00a0 The next day instead of being happy about the personal byline, I complained about the inaccurate caption, which stated that the soldier was walking through tear gas.\u00c2\u00a0 I asked Chuck, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How stupid do they think I am to say I would walk into tear gas to take a picture?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 He calmly told me, as I also learned to do in later years, that he would talk to the caption writer.\u00c2\u00a0 Without a pause, he handed me a couple of new assignments.\u00c2\u00a0 And like the good photojournalist I was becoming, I immediately took off to do them.<\/p>\n As expected, I caught plenty of flack about being so macho that I would walk through tear gas to get a picture.\u00c2\u00a0 The friendly harassment was not unwelcome, but even more important was my satisfaction that I had made an image that told the story.\u00c2\u00a0 Reader response was positive.\u00c2\u00a0 Some were scared.\u00c2\u00a0 And that was just as it should have been.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Less than two months after the infamous Detroit riot of July 1967 in which the Michigan National Guard was called out, I was assigned to photograph California National Guard riot training for the Modesto Bee.\u00c2\u00a0 At the time, I was … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Riot_Training_1967_01.jpg\" "\\"Riot_Training_1967_01\\"")
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