Friendship born of that shameful March day

RON no longer owns the camera he used that terrible day.

It sits in the home of good friend Duc Van Tran who will join him when he returns to Vietnam this week.

Duc will be with younger sister Ha Van Tran remembering the dead, including their mother.

Ron captured a shot of terrified Duc, then eight, sheltering his two-year-old sibling that March morning. He heard shots and assumed they were dead.

Later he photographed the body of a woman sheltering behind a rock.

Years later he learnt the children had lived and that the woman was their mother.

Duc, who now lives in Germany and works for the police, made contact and the pair have become firm friends.

Ron says: “The My Lai camera is now sitting in Duc’s home in Germany.

“That to him is important because it captured the last image of his mother.

“The Vietnamese are very forgiving, they just want the soldiers to come back so they can forgive them.” PALS Ron and Duc, whose mum was victim