Cambodia October 1970

The Fickle finger of fate.

Covering the war in Cambodia was a lot more dangerous than in S. Vietnam: there were no medivac helicopters to bring you to the firefight, or resupply helicopters to take you back home at the end of the day to your air-conditioned press center room. (Danang). You had to go by car. And often, the Khmer Rouge would use the car for target practice. Intelligence of who owned the road that day or hour, was seldom accurate and as a free-lancer you depended on the kindness of those who had cars on standby and as a photojournalist (no competition to tv) I could usually catch a ride with one of the TV Networks or with UPI. Except for once: On October 25, 1970, Frank Frosch the Phnom Penh UPI-bureau-chief had heard that the Khmer Rouge had taken over the Kirirom Dam. He wanted to take a look and asked if I wanted to come along. We left at nine the next morning on October 26. By this time the local traffic would have ‘cleared’ any mines planted by the ‘Khmer Rouge’ during the night. (By driving on top of them). We did not make it that day to the Kirirom Dam. Frank and I decided that we would try again the next morning. When I arrived at 09:00 hrs on October the 27th, at the poolside office of UPI, Kate Web was sitting behind her desk typing.

“Morning Kate, have you seen Frank? I was supposed to meet him here at nine.”

“Frank left with Sawada about 10 minutes ago.”

“I don’t understand.” I said.

“Sawada, didn’t want you along.” said Kate. “Sawada is a staff photographer, not much Frank could do.” Disappointed I left the office. They had not returned by 18:00 hrs and everybody in the office was getting worried. Phone calls were made, but no answers were forthcoming. The word was out and journalists stopped by to inquire if there was any news. The next morning, the two of them had still not returned. Around noon, Kate finally received a phone call from the Cambodian military. Their bodies had been found.