The only Medal of Honor to be awarded to a combat photographer is now on display in the Medal of Honor Gallery in the "Price of Freedom" exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Marine Cpl. William Thomas Perkins Jr. died at the age of 20 on Oct. 12, 1967, when he flung himself on a grenade to preserve the lives of three other Marines during Operation Medina, a Marine search and destroy operation in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. 
The Marine Corps posthumously awarded him the Medal of Honor for "his gallant actions."
Perkins' mother, Marilane Perkins Jacobson of Lexington, Ky., donated the medal, her son's letters and other personal effects to the museum's permanent Armed Forces Collections in 2015.
"I didn't want his possessions to end up in somebody's brown box in a basement," Jacobson said. "I figured they should go to the Smithsonian."
Perkins' award, his Purple Heart, and photography are exhibited along with his Bell and Howell camera, which shows damage from the grenade attack and is on loan from the National Museum of the Marine Corps. This is the first time the camera and Medal of Honor have been displayed together. Museum Advisory Board member Jeff Garrett, also of Lexington, assisted with the acquisition.
The Medal of Honor is America's highest award for valor in combat. First authorized in 1861 for sailors and Marines and the following year for soldiers, more than 3,400 Medals of Honor have been bestowed for conspicuous and well-documented acts of gallantry in war. The Medal of Honor Gallery tells the story of the nation's highest military honor through artifacts and interactive displays.
The Medal of Honor is America's highest award for valor in combat. First authorized in 1861 for sailors and Marines and the following year for soldiers, more than 3,400 Medals of Honor have been bestowed for conspicuous and well-documented acts of gallantry in war. The Medal of Honor Gallery tells the story of the nation's highest military honor through artifacts and interactive displays.
Jacobson told the Associated Press in 2015 that her son's Medal of Honor was precious to her, "but I can't take it with me. I've just been holding my breath and asking God to give me time to send that where it should be forever."
Her son's love for cameras came from his father, William T. Perkins, who worked for Eastman Kodak, headquartered in Rochester, N.Y.
Perkins Jr. joined the Marines "because they were the only ones who said he could probably work with a Mitchell movie camera," Jacobson told the Associated Press. The Mitchell camera was a 35mm camera often used in Hollywood.
The "Price of Freedom: Americans at War" exhibition surveys the history of America's military from the French and Indian Wars to the present conflict in Iraq, exploring ways in which wars have been defining episodes in American history. The exhibition extends far beyond a survey of battles to present the link between military conflict and American political leadership, social values, technological innovation, and personal sacrifice. The heart of the story is the impact of war on citizen soldiers, their families and communities.
Asked what she wants people to learn from her son's effects, Jacobson told AP, "As far as I'm concerned, the war was a waste, and I hate war. Not too many other people threw themselves on grenades to save other people. But I would think they would think he had great character, which he did, and he lived a lifetime in 20 years."
On May 15, 1862, the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, also known as the Battle of Fort Darling, was fought between Union and Confederate forces at a sharp bend on the James River near Richmond, Virginia. Union forces were stationed aboard warships in the river, and 
Confederate forces were high on a fortified bluff.
Richmond was the Confederate capital and vulnerable to attack by the Union Army on land, and by the Union Navy through the navigable James River. In March 1862, Confederate Captain Augustus H. Drewry ordered the construction of fortifications and the installation of large guns on his property, which was on a 90-foot bluff above the James River, and just seven miles from Richmond.
Early in May, Norfolk fell to Union forces and the Confederate ship C.S.S. Virginia took refuge to avoid capture. This left the James River at Hampton Roads exposed and open to Union warships. At Drewry's Bluff, Confederate forces filled the river with underwater obstructions, including debris, sunken steamers, and pilings to prevent Union ships from reaching Richmond. Then they took up defensive positions in the fort and along the banks.
A detachment of Naval vessels took advantage of the open waterway and made a push for Richmond. The USS Monitor and USS Galena, and gunboats Aroostook, Port Royal, and Naugatuck steamed up the James River. As they approached the bend at Drewry's Bluff, they encountered the obstacles and anchored just below the fort. The Galena opened fire and the Confederates responded. Armor-piercing shots penetrated the Galena causing extensive damage. 
The Monitor's armor was much thicker, allowing for the shots to ricochet off, but her rotating guns were not able to raise at an angle high enough to fire on the fort. The gunboats encountered problems too. The Port Royal was hit below the waterline and the Naugatuck's gun burst. For more than three hours of intense fire, the Galena took the brunt of the attack.
U.S. Marine John F. Mackie was aboard the Galena and watched as one by one, the naval gun crew was either wounded or killed. Mackie commanded a dozen Marines on the gun deck and led his men to take over operation of the guns. For his "gallant conduct and services," President Abraham Lincoln later personally bestowed the Medal of Honor upon Mackie. He is the first Marine to receive that honor.
With Galena's ammunition running low, the Union fleet eventually retreated. Union troops counted 27 casualties, including 14 dead. Confederate casualties were 15, with seven dead. The Confederates successfully prevented the Union Navy from reaching Richmond.
Speaking of Eisenhower, Field Marshal Lord Montgomery once said, "nice chap, no general." General George Patton once lamented that it was too bad that Eisenhower had no personal knowledge of war. General Omar Bradley would write that Eisenhower "had little grasp of sound battlefield tactics."
That might seem like some pretty harsh criticism considering the West tends to look back on Eisenhower as the man who led the allies to victory in Europe. His iconic status was further cemented in history when he became President of the United States in 1952.
However, the historical facts would prove that Eisenhower was but a LtCol at the start of 1941 and an officer who had never personally seen combat. Yet, that wouldn't stop him from getting the keys to one of the largest military force the world has ever known.
A Mediocre Rise to Power
Dwight D Eisenhower entered the halls of West Point in 1911 with a greater chance of becoming a football star than the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. However, a football injury to his knee would not only end his football career but almost his military career as well. After graduating from West Point in 1915, his knee injury almost caused him to miss out on his commission as an officer in the Army.
Were it not for the intervention of West Point's chief medical officer; the world may never have heard of a cadet by the name of Dwight Eisenhower.
He was given his commission and assigned to the 19th Infantry at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. After the United States joined World War I, Eisenhower was promoted to Captain and given orders to Camp Colt, Pennsylvania, where he would help train the newly formed Tank Corps.
While Eisenhower, like most young Officers of his day, longed for deployment to war, he would be denied. Rather, Eisenhower and his unit were given orders for a November 18th deployment to France, but the unfortunate timing of the November 11th armistice ensured Eisenhower would miss out on the entire war.
And while Eisenhower would not have the opportunity to distinguish himself in combat, he was making quite a name for himself as a trainer, organizational expert, and strategic thinker. During the years between the wars, Eisenhower would bounce through numerous commands and seemed well on his way to a rather unremarkable military career.
He would, however, serve closely with a few high-ranking generals such as Gen. Douglas MacArthur as they prized his efficient administrative ability. As 1941 rolled around, Eisenhower was still a Lt. Colonel, but the tides were about to change as mediocrity would give way to an unprecedented rise through the ranks.
A Leader of Generals
Eisenhower would first get a chance to truly distinguish himself during the late 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers, which were a series of training exercises designed to evaluate the United States military's readiness for war. At this point, a "full bird" Colonel, Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff of the Blue Army, and by the time the maneuvers had wrapped up, Dwight D Eisenhower would finally be able to call himself General.
As a Brigadier General at the start of World War II, few still could've predicted that this man would surpass in rank the various Generals already ahead of him given his lack of combat experience.
But what Eisenhower lacked in combat, he made up for with political intuition and the remarkable ability to work with the complex personalities that made up the military leadership of the Allies. Perhaps it was his time serving directly under the notoriously difficult MacArthur, but Eisenhower did not seem to be phased by the vast array of Generals who could only be described as the World War II equivalent of a diva.
In addition, the war would require a certain amount of diplomacy with heads of state. At one point, Eisenhower was so trusted he was allowed to communicate with Joseph Stalin himself.
After briefly serving under Chief of Staff George C Marshall, these interpersonal abilities were recognized, and that, along with his known organizational and administrative skills would propel him into power. The rest is history that we all know too well. He would become the Commanding General of the European theater of operations in 1942, and before the war was over, he would be the Supreme Allied Commander of it all.
Being the person holding the keys to this mighty military machine at this moment of its victory was a good spot to be in.
Marching on Into History
After the war, Eisenhower was far and above widely viewed as a national hero. And while the allied generals who served with Eisenhower respected his abilities as a politician and administrator, they still wouldn't pull their punches when it came to judging his military capacity. Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke would record in his journals as of late 1942 that as a military General, Eisenhower was "hopeless. He submerges himself in politics and neglects his military duties, partly, because he knows little if anything about military matters."
American Admiral John Hall who helped land the 1st Division on Omaha Beach, would write that Eisenhower "was one of the most overrated men in military history."
While history rightly looks kindly upon the effort and leadership abilities of Gen. Eisenhower, it can't ignore the fact that the contemporaries of his day thought very little of his ability to command in the field. Perhaps one might make the case that these men known to be military divas of a sort were just having a tough time swallowing the pill that the man who just a few years prior was a LtCol with no combat experience was now their boss.
Then again, history could also make the case that only a man such as Eisenhower could've led these various personalities to victory in the greatest war the world has ever seen. But Eisenhower appeared to live just fine with the criticism as Supreme Allied Commander, and President of the United States. Not too bad of a resume to go on one's gravestone.
As a German plane buzzed overhead, nurse Helen Dore Boylston dropped face down in the mud. Boylston, an American nurse, serving at a British Army base hospital near the Western Front in 1918, had been running between wards of wounded patients that night, trying to calm their nerves during the air raid. Now, all she could do was brace herself for the hissing bomb that hurtled toward her. She covered her eyes and ears against the deafening roar and "blood-red flare." About a half-hour later, finally realizing she had not been hurt, Boylston stopped shaking.
Boylston's vivid account of her World War I experience as a nurse, published in 1927, depicts her work with the first Harvard Unit, a U.S. medical team that treated more casualties than any other group of American doctors and nurses during the conflict. In May 1917, U.S. 
medical teams became the first American troops to arrive in the war zone, and many remained through mid-1919.
Over 22,000 professionally-trained female nurses were recruited by the American Red Cross to serve in the U.S. Army between 1917 and 1919 - and over 10,000 of these served near the Western Front. More than 1,500 nurses served in the U.S. Navy during this period, and several hundred worked for the American Red Cross. Additionally, a handful, like Boylston, worked in American units of the British and French armies. The U.S. military rejected for overseas service nurses who were African Americans or immigrants, despite drafting men from these groups.
Although Allied military leaders wanted to keep the (female) nurses far from danger, they soon realized that many more combatants' lives could be saved if wounds were first treated near the front rather than at far-away base hospitals. Numerous nurses served at front-line casualty clearing stations or with forward units. In August 1917, U.S. Army nurse Beatrice MacDonald, on duty at a casualty clearing station, came under enemy fire during an air raid, and fragments of shrapnel from a bomb blast sliced through her eye. After being evacuated, MacDonald refused orders to go home, reportedly stating, "I have just started doing my bit." With only one eye, MacDonald remained on duty in France until after the armistice and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
War nursing's more common hazards included infected fingers, sickness, and physical strain. "My back is busted in two tonight. Slowly, [moving] down the ward, doing the dressings and making the beds," Boylston wrote in her diary. This frequent changing of dressings and application of antiseptic, though physically exhausting, served a critical medical function in the pre-antibiotic era: It became the most effective method for healing infected war wounds and prevented many limb amputations.
In her diary, Boylston also described the social side of war - how ever-present reminders of mortality and the transience of military life lent special intensity to otherwise ordinary human relationships. For nurses, close friendships became indispensable, while romances served as welcome distractions or led to engagements.
But Boylston differed in some respects from most U.S. military nurses. She was 23, and came from an affluent family, while many U.S. Army and Navy nurses had working-class or rural origins. Laura Huckleberry, who served in Base Hospital №12, the "Northwestern Unit," more typically exemplifies these nurses. In 1909, she left the Indiana farm, where she grew up to study at the Illinois Training School for Nurses in Chicago. After graduating in 1913, Huckleberry worked as a public health nurse investigating contagious diseases in the city's immigrant neighborhoods. When Huckleberry's unit sailed to France to take over a British hospital at Dannes-Camiers, she was 29 and already dating the man she would marry, John Erle Davis. During her time at war, Huckleberry wrote over 150 letters to Davis, who was also stationed in France.
Huckleberry's letters highlight the fact that U.S. Army and Navy nurses served without rank or commission, and that this lack of status created problems. After the Colonel in charge of Huckleberry's unit unceremoniously replaced their beloved chief nurse with a younger, prettier woman, Huckleberry fumed to Davis in a letter. "If we had the commissions we should have had before leaving the U.S.A., we would not be at the mercy of such men. They would have to give a reason not only to us but to headquarters for such performances."
Some nursing leaders agreed. A campaign to accord the U.S. military nurses rank, which coincided with the Woman's suffrage movement, led in 1920 to a compromise in which U.S. Army and Navy nurses were accorded "relative ranks" of Lieutenant, Captain, and Major. Actual commissions would have to wait until 1947.
But the battle for these original commissions is not over. Huckleberry and Davis's youngest son, Michael W. R. Davis, who has woven his parents' letters together with diary entries from others in a forthcoming book - has launched a campaign to get the U.S. Army and Navy to posthumously commission his mother and the other World War I U.S. nurses. This act, Davis believes, would be a fitting way to honor these pioneering and largely unappreciated women veterans on the centennial of the war.
There are few regimes and organizations in European history so universally condemned for their evil actions as the Nazis. Their leader, Adolf Hitler, led Germany into infamy in the Second World War, committing unspeakable crimes against humanity. However, another lurid element in the story of the Fuhrer's monstrous beliefs comes from his obsession – and that of his close advisors – with occult and esoteric practices.
From the members of sinister secret societies to SS Officers carrying out rituals in ancient castles, here are four Nazis with dark and mysterious links to the occult.
The SS Occultist: Heinrich Himmler
Himmler is remembered as the infamous author of Hitler's so-called "Final Solution." He was a key figure in the Nazi regime and a powerful player in the German government. However, his obsession with the occult has also added a lurid mystery to his life and career.
It is claimed that Himmler was an active practitioner and believer in black magic. He is thought to have studied and followed many ritualistic traditions, including necromancy and ancient Germanic paganism. There are numerous accounts of his attempts to contact the dead, a practice he carried out at the sinister Wewelsburg Castle, in north-east Germany.
This castle became a stronghold of the SS Order, and Himmler envisioned the location as the center of a new Nazi-dominated world order, to be established after a mythical final battle. His personal fascination with sorcery, spiritualism and the occult as a whole colored and influenced his political ideologies and, by extension, those of the Nazi party itself.
As a close confidant of the Fuhrer and an influential political figure in the party, Himmler added a strangely fantastical element to the already monstrous legacy of the Nazi regime.
Himmler is remembered as the infamous author of Hitler's so-called "Final Solution." He was a key figure in the Nazi regime and a powerful player in the German government. However, his obsession with the occult has also added a lurid mystery to his life and career. It is claimed that Himmler was an active practitioner and believer in black magic. He is thought to have studied and followed many ritualistic traditions, including necromancy and ancient Germanic paganism. There are numerous accounts of his attempts to contact the dead, a practice he carried out at the sinister Wewelsburg Castle, in north-east Germany.
The Traitor: Rudolf Hess
Of the many high-ranking Nazis who associated themselves with esoteric and occult beliefs, few could claim such a legacy as Rudolf Hess. Not only did he promote these practices and raise many occultists to positions of power within the regime, but his actions also brought the same beliefs into infamy among his comrades.
Hess was a member of the Thule Society, an organization dedicated to the occult, and even went so far as to have extensive maps drawn up of supposed networks of spiritual energy. The story of his flight to Scotland - an act that Hitler perceived as a massive personal betrayal - is a remarkable one in itself, but following the news that the Fuhrer's own deputy had vanished across the North Sea, the Nazi's Gestapo forces commenced "Aktion Hess."
This process involved rounding up and imprisoning Hess's associates, including his wide-ranging network of occultists and ritualists. By positioning himself squarely at the center of the occult movement and then falling from grace so spectacularly, Hess doomed his fellow practitioners to a very sudden end. Everything from fortune-telling to astrology was outlawed, and the Nazi party's infatuation with black magic was over.
The Fortune-Teller: Karl Ernst Krafft
While his seemingly supernatural gifts would eventually be his undoing, Krafft's uncanny abilities seemed in life to be both a blessing and a curse. Originally born in Sweden, the man was fascinated by astrology and clairvoyance. He was a committed supporter of the Nazi regime, but in 1939 he made a remarkable prediction. There would, he claimed, be an assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler between the 7th and 10th of November.
At the time his claims received little attention but following the detonation of a bomb in the Munich Beer Hall on November 8, everything changed. Hitler had already left the building by the time the explosion occurred, and although seven people were killed and almost 70 more injured, the target of the attack escaped unscathed. Soon afterward, word of Krafft's prophecy reached Rudolf Hess, and the fortune-teller was arrested. However, he managed to convince his interrogators that he was innocent of any wrongdoing and that his gifts were genuine.
Krafft was well-liked by Hitler himself and was ordered to begin an evaluation of the prophecies of Nostradamus that would favor the Nazi worldview. However, his own gifts were his undoing; following Rudolf Hess's flight to Scotland, the Nazis instituted a massive crackdown against many of the occultists involved with the perceived traitor. Krafft was arrested and died in prison in 1945.
The Secret Society: Johann Dietrich Eckart
Adolf Hitler has often been seen as the subject of various prophecies. Perhaps most notable is the Nostradamus verse in which the fortune-teller wrote, "Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross the rivers; the greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister", along with references to a "Child of Germany."
One man who believed in Hitler's almost mythical status was Johann Dietrich Eckhart. A member of the mysterious Thule Society, he and many of the group's members, believed that a German messiah was prophesied to enter history eventually. This figure would return the nation to its former glory, avenge their defeat in the First World War and undo the humiliation imposed upon them with the Treaty of Versailles.
Eckhart met Hitler in 1919 and was certain that this man was the savior he believed Germany had been promised. The man went on to shape Hitler's ideologies considerably, sculpting the beliefs and worldview of the Nazi party. Along with Rudolf Hess, this is yet another example of the shadowy Thule Society's influence over the Nazi regime.
While the evils perpetrated by the Nazis are a matter of undeniable historical fact, the thought process and belief systems behind their actions will always remain a subject of debate. While there were many different influences that formed the twisted ideologies of Hitler and his followers, the impact of the occult adds another layer of mystery to the genesis of evil.
Having my feet firmly planted in the camps of archive photography and military history, I was bound to be drawn to this absorbing and often extremely personal book from Dan Brookes and the late Bob Hillerby. They recount their experiences of serving in 
Vietnam and offer a deep insight into the world of combat and general photography orchestrated by the US Army.
This is a difficult book to put down.
Mr. Hillerby tells an eye-watering tale of his life as a combat photographer, often in danger, ever on the alert to get the shot and stay alive.
His stories of serving with the Air Cavalry Division are stirring, to say the least. But the thing that underpins all this is his deep knowledge of his subject and the photography itself. He has left one of the most credible accounts of the war I’ve had the honor to read.
I’ve loved photography for fifty years, and this book takes the reader right into the heart of it in ways that aren’t immediately apparent. Messrs Brookes and Hillerby cherish the medium and its history, and they take us to what they describe as the most photographed war in history and offer convincing proof to back up the claim.
What shocked and saddened me was to learn just how much of that material has been scrapped by the US government in recent years; but this is by no means unusual because photo archives are often an immense drain on space, money, and labor.
We live in straightened times where luxuries like photo archives fall victim to more pressing needs.
I am reminded of a decision made by the British air ministry in WWII to scrap a vast archive of glass plate negatives from the Great War period to make the foundations of a runway. Needs as needs must.
While Mr. Hillerby’s combat diary is enthralling, the accounts from Mr. Brookes are no less fascinating. His experiences working in photo labs and doing photography of his own are a great read. The two men were mates, and the moments they catch up with each other are really nice.
They both paint pictures of interesting characters, gung-ho types, and the time servers found in any army. There are the inevitable bar girls and chancers and a fair sprinkling of REMFs to take in.
The photography is excellent, and this all adds to a book that is an essential read to anyone interested in the Vietnam War or conflict photography in general.
The authors recognize some of the best-known press snappers covering the conflict, and I detect a degree of frustration that the military snappers have failed to receive anything like similar recognition for their feats.
Fair play. A wonderful exhibition of Sir Don McCullin’s work was held in London earlier this year, where many of his classic photos from Vietnam were on show along with his helmet and some of his equipment. A Nikon that took a bullet was a standout item from the show.
Legends like McCullin are bound to stand out, but there is clearly room to learn more about the military men working without any of the fandom attached to them.
The authors take us on a much darker journey when they introduce the work of army snapper Ronald Haeberle who had the presence of mind to photograph the My Lai massacre as it unfolded. His photographs became vital evidence in the prosecution of the men who inflicted the horror. We also meet Tony Swindell who recorded other excesses.
There is no question that a degree of bitterness towards specific figures, some well-known, is intense for the authors of this book. I found these chapters to be something of a digression from the broad theme of the book and took away a real sense that Mr. Brookes had a few things to get off his chest. While these things are challenging for the reader, it is vital to have these accounts available. They take some of the caricatures out of a conflict that have been set in place by movies and the like.
This is an at times difficult book to read, but it is essential stuff. It is a book by war photographers who were also soldiers and it offers a different vibe as a consequence. I am really pleased to have read it and have no hesitation in recommending it.
The Marine Corps posthumously awarded him the Medal of Honor for "his gallant actions."
Confederate forces were high on a fortified bluff.
The Monitor's armor was much thicker, allowing for the shots to ricochet off, but her rotating guns were not able to raise at an angle high enough to fire on the fort. The gunboats encountered problems too. The Port Royal was hit below the waterline and the Naugatuck's gun burst. For more than three hours of intense fire, the Galena took the brunt of the attack.
However, the historical facts would prove that Eisenhower was but a LtCol at the start of 1941 and an officer who had never personally seen combat. Yet, that wouldn't stop him from getting the keys to one of the largest military force the world has ever known.
While Eisenhower, like most young Officers of his day, longed for deployment to war, he would be denied. Rather, Eisenhower and his unit were given orders for a November 18th deployment to France, but the unfortunate timing of the November 11th armistice ensured Eisenhower would miss out on the entire war.
As a Brigadier General at the start of World War II, few still could've predicted that this man would surpass in rank the various Generals already ahead of him given his lack of combat experience.
American Admiral John Hall who helped land the 1st Division on Omaha Beach, would write that Eisenhower "was one of the most overrated men in military history."
medical teams became the first American troops to arrive in the war zone, and many remained through mid-1919.
War nursing's more common hazards included infected fingers, sickness, and physical strain. "My back is busted in two tonight. Slowly, [moving] down the ward, doing the dressings and making the beds," Boylston wrote in her diary. This frequent changing of dressings and application of antiseptic, though physically exhausting, served a critical medical function in the pre-antibiotic era: It became the most effective method for healing infected war wounds and prevented many limb amputations.
Huckleberry's letters highlight the fact that U.S. Army and Navy nurses served without rank or commission, and that this lack of status created problems. After the Colonel in charge of Huckleberry's unit unceremoniously replaced their beloved chief nurse with a younger, prettier woman, Huckleberry fumed to Davis in a letter. "If we had the commissions we should have had before leaving the U.S.A., we would not be at the mercy of such men. They would have to give a reason not only to us but to headquarters for such performances."
The SS Occultist: Heinrich Himmler
The Traitor: Rudolf Hess
The Fortune-Teller: Karl Ernst Krafft
The Secret Society: Johann Dietrich Eckart
While Mr. Hillerby’s combat diary is enthralling, the accounts from Mr. Brookes are no less fascinating. His experiences working in photo labs and doing photography of his own are a great read. The two men were mates, and the moments they catch up with each other are really nice.
The authors take us on a much darker journey when they introduce the work of army snapper Ronald Haeberle who had the presence of mind to photograph the My Lai massacre as it unfolded. His photographs became vital evidence in the prosecution of the men who inflicted the horror. We also meet Tony Swindell who recorded other excesses.