The iconic promotional image of
Willem Dafoe with his hands raised in anguish from movie “Platoon” was inspired
by a real photo. This April 1968 file
photo shows the first sergeant of A Company, 101st Airborne Division, guiding a
medevac helicopter through the jungle foliage to pick up casualties suffered
during a five-day patrol near Hue, Vietnam, April 1968. “When I look at that picture now, I say, ‘If I
can survive that, I can survive anything,’” said Tim Wintenburg, who in the
photo helps carry a wounded soldier over brush hacked away to create a
helicopter landing zone. Sgt. Maj. Watson Baldwin has his arms raised to guide
in a helicopter that would take away the wounded men, including one shot in the
leg by the Vietnamese soldier who was firing at Brown. Baldwin died in 2005,
according to Fort Campbell officials who recently tracked down soldiers in the
photo.