Publication information: 1964.
Negative : b&w ; 3 x 4 cm. (1 x 1 in.)
Title supplied by photographer.
Negative taken for October 7, 1964, Arkansas Gazette article "American Help to Needy Big Weapon in Vietnam" B1:2, and October 8, 1964, Arkansas Gazette article "Watching Some Doctoring While a Powwow Goes On" B1:2, and October 9, 1964, Arkansas Gazette article "Happiness is a Montagnard Child With Bluejeans", B1:2. Ernie Deane accompanied Specialist-5 Johnny (John F.) Surguine of Conway, Faulkner County, Arkansas, and his "med-cap" team as they distributed medicine, clothing, tools, and other items to mountain tribesmen near Pleiku, Vietnam. The tribesmen who are known as montagnards, a French word for mountaineers, live in bamboo and thatch huts in small villages. "Med-cap" is a combination of 'medical' and 'civil action program', designating a U.S. military effort to improve the lives of the local population by giving them care that they lack. The "med-cap" workers had a military guard because of the number of Viet Cong in the area. Deane also went along with representatives from the United States Operations Mission and CARE (Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere) as they performed similar duties in another village. This negative is part of a group taken for a series of articles Deane wrote on Vietnam and published between September 30 and November 15, 1964.
Also available via the Internet at the Arkansas History Commission site.
Part of the Arkansas History Commission's Stage One Digitization project funded by the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council.
Copyright restrictions applying to use or reproduction of this image are available from the Arkansas History Commission.
Ernest Cecil "Ernie" Deane (1911-1991) was an Arkansas native, journalist, soldier, teacher, folklorist and historian. He is best known as the writer of the original Arkansas Traveler (1956-1965) newspaper column in the Arkansas Gazette for which most of the negatives in this collection were made.