Shorewood native now honorary Marine
Photographer died while covering the Vietnam War
Shorewood native Dickey Chapelle, a photographer who died covering the Vietnam War, revered the Marines. And now she’s one of them.
An official certificate declaring Chapelle an honorary Marine was presented last month at the Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association annual dinner in San Diego. Commandant Gen. Robert Neller approved the honor late last year.
The honor comes as renewed attention is being paid to the Vietnam War, in advance of a new PBS documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns. The first installment of the 18-hour Burns project aired Sunday night.
It’s also the latest in a string of honors and attention paid to Chapelle, who was born as Georgette Louis Meyer in Milwaukee and graduated from Shorewood High School.
She was killed while on patrol when a Marine walking in front of her tripped a booby trap. A famous photo by Associated Press photojournalist Henri Huet shows a Navy chaplain performing the last rites for Chapelle.
At the time of her death in 1965 at age 47 she was believed to be the first female U.S. journalist killed in war.
Chapelle covered the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa during World War II, and traveled to Algeria, Panama, Lebanon, Hungary, Cuba and Vietnam on assignment for National Geographic, Cosmopolitan, National Observer and other publications.
“Chapelle loved the Marines, her fondness stemming from her first visit to the front lines on Iwo Jima,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Meg Jones wrote in 2014.
“She called them ‘her Marines’ and they responded in kind to her, the slender woman who didn’t mind digging her own foxhole and ate the same chow as they did.”
A story about Chapelle and the new honor were published this week in the Marine Corps Times.
Chapelle attracted renewed local attention in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of her death in 2015. That included an induction into the Milwaukee Press Club’s Hall of Fame and publication of a book “Dickey Chapelle Under Fire” by author John Garofolo.
A locally produced documentary, “Behind the Pearl Earrings,” has been has been updated to include the new honor and will be aired again in tandem with the Burns film. That documentary is also available on YouTube.