Dickey Chapelle Under Fire: Photographs by the First American Female War Correspondent Killed in Action

Striking photographs and stories from more than two decades on the frontlines by a groundbreaking photojournalist―and the first female American war correspondent to be killed in action.

In 1941, twenty-two-year-old Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle sold her first photo essay to Look magazine. A year later, with World War II underway, she was photographing American soldiers in combat training in Panama. By the end of the war, she had captured the devastation at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and in the ensuing decades, Dickey and her camera were on the scene at many of the world’s hotspots―from Cuba and the Dominican Republic to Algeria and Lebanon to Vietnam and Laos. Dickey Chapelle Under Fire exposes her remarkable story and shares over 150 stunning images from her extraordinary career as a photojournalist.

In the male-dominated world of war journalism, Chapelle fought to be taken seriously. She eventually earned the respect of many of her male colleagues and broke down barriers for future generations of female journalists. She embedded herself with military units on frontlines around the globe, capturing not only the horrors of war but also the camaraderie and everyday routines of service men and women.

Always one to follow the action, Chapelle traveled with Algerian rebels across the North African desert and with Fidel Castro through the jungles of Cuba. She spent two months in a Hungarian prison after being caught smuggling aid to refugees fleeing a Soviet invasion. Beginning in 1961, Chapelle set her lens and viewfinder on Southeast Asia, capturing the growing conflict there, until she was killed while on patrol with marines in Vietnam in April 1965―making her the first female American war correspondent to be killed in action.

For twenty-five years, Chapelle's photographs graced the pages of National Geographic, the National Observer, Life, and other major publications. Despite her tragic end, Chapelle’s tenacity, courage, and compassion shine throughout her work, highlighting the human impact of war while revealing the larger stories beyond the battlefield. Her legacy lives on through this powerful collection. 

John Garofolo is a retired Coast Guard captain and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Prior to the Coast Guard, he was an entertainment industry executive and later earned a PhD from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He taught at the US Coast Guard Academy and periodically teaches on “War Films and Warrior Culture” at Yale University. John is an alumnus of the Writers Guild Foundation Veterans Writing Program and continues working on multiple writing projects, including a stage adaptation of Dickey Chapelle's life story. He lives in Southern California.