April 19, 1975 Soldier and Children Portrait

QLVNCH Ranger Senior Sergeant and Children, Saigon, April, 19, 1975, RVNHS Archive.

 

            When we look back forty years ago this month we often try to envision the chaos and intensity of those last weeks of April. Of the many photos in the RVNHS Archive, this is one photograph that has always stood out. It shows a ranger senior sergeant with three children. On the reverse, there is a note which reads the children are his two sons and daughter, and that the photo was taken in Saigon on April 19, 1975. Unfortunately, the name of the soldier is not given. He is simply referred to as "father." The photo was acquired as a single photograph among many random images with no further accompanying information provided. We do not know what became of this soldier and his family in the coming weeks after this photo was taken. Yet, the photograph does stand in posterity as an image of a moment when as a world was ending, one soldier in uniform chose to pose for a portrait with his children.