El Paso veteran recalls Life photo taken during Vietnam War

Fifty years ago an El Paso Marine was part of documented history during the Vietnam War.

Life Magazine correspondent David Douglas Duncan was covering the Vietnam War when he captured a photograph of El Pasoan Albert Miranda looking through the scope of his sniper rifle. The photograph became a transcendent image during the war.

Despite the photograph being 50 years old, Miranda still recalls the moments leading to the photograph.

“That night, a large group of North Vietnamese attacked us,” Miranda said. “We repelled them two or three times and we fought for about four or five hours and we had 50 casualties on our side.”

He also recalls being wounded that same day.

“The same day it came out I got wounded,” Miranda said. “There’s a coincidence there that I don’t know how it came to be”

Miranda said the photograph was taken February 5, 1968 and it was published on Life Magazine later that month on February 23.

Miranda described the atmosphere in Vietnam and how they were honoring the ones who fought in wars before them.

“We were young at heart and we were fighting a war that we believed in,” he said. “Most of us had fathers that were in World War II and we took the same steps they did. It was my turn to serve this country like my dad did.”

Miranda suggested the image signifies the sacrifices made by veterans and present day soldiers.

“It signifies the youth and the sacrifice by our American citizens, which is happening right now in Afghanistan. This is the cream of the crop and they’re defending our rights,” he said.