"I thought, man, this is the way to go." (Audio interview, 10:00)

Ronald Wayne Marshall

War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch: Air Force Unit: 600th Photo Squadron Service Location: Texas; Colorado; Florida; South Vietnam; Kirtland Air Force Base (AFB), New Mexico; Germany; Sacramento, California Rank: Staff Sergeant, E-5 Place of Birth: IA

Enlisting in the Air Force in 1964, Ronald Wayne Marshall parlayed his childhood interest in photography into his primary military responsibility. Serving with the 600th Photo Squadron, he split his time in country between Tan Son Nhut Airbase and going out on patrols in the field to chronicle Army and Air Force operations. A motion picture cameraman, he was deeply affected, emotionally and physically, by what he saw and documented while embedded with Army units. Photographing Operation Ranch Hand--during which Agent Orange was used to destroy vegetation in the Vietnamese jungles--exposed him to such high levels of the toxic defoliant that he eventually developed diabetes.