“The West Texas A&M University Distinguished Lecture Series is pleased to announce its first speaker of the semester. John Olson, a photographer famous for his photos of the Vietnam War, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19 at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum (PPHM), Derrick Room. Olson will discuss his time in Vietnam, his photos that presented the realities of the war and counterculture as part of PPHM’s year of pop culture.
At 19 years old, Olson was deployed overseas for the military publication, Stars and Stripes and was the youngest staff photographer for Lifemagazine. In 1968, 20-year-old Olson photographed the most important moment during “The Battle of Huế,” one of the bloodiest battles during the Vietnam War. His most famous photograph is a haunting image of wounded Marines that depicts the violence American soldiers faced. Decades later, the iconic photograph, “The Marines and Tet,” would be featured at the Newseum in Washington and would later win him the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award.
Like all Distinguished Lecture Series events, the Olson lecture is free and open to the public.
WTAMU’s Distinguished Lecture Series was created in 2007 to enhance education in the classroom. A portion of the student activity fee funds the series, and committee members strive to select speakers who appeal to a broad spectrum of the student body. The mission of the DLS is to invite person of national prominence to the WTAMU campus in order to expose students to important issues of our time.”
-West Texas A&M University
