Then All Hell Broke Loose

One Marine, one camera, and a front-row seat to history—Then All Hell Broke Loose is a gripping visual journey through the Vietnam War.

The USNS Hugh J. Gaffey dropped anchor at 1430 hours on December 27, 1966, under an overcast sky at Da Nang, Vietnam. Standing on deck and taking his first look at Vietnam was PFC Dennis Irwin Fisher, a newly minted Marine infantry rifleman. A snafu on his orders would send him to the Headquarters 1st Marine Division personnel office as “unassigned” and from there to the Division Security Platoon. As fate would have it, the Security Platoon hooches were just a short walk from the 1st Division Photo Lab.

After six months of effort and agreeing to extend his tour of duty for an additional six months, Lance Corporal Fisher was transferred to Division Photo and assigned a secondary MOS as a 4631 combat still photographer. His training as an infantryman, position as a combat photographer, and his civilian training as a photojournalist provided him with a unique skill set and vantage point from which to record the actions of the Marines during the heaviest fighting of the Vietnam War.

Then All Hell Broke Loose follows the young Marine photographer through seven large operations and numerous smaller actions, his wounding and two-month hospital stay, and his return to Vietnam just as the Tet Offensive broke out. Fisher’s photographs display the trials and tribulations of combat and the humanity of the men fighting day in and day out. Some have been featured by the National Archives for their insightful depictions of the Vietnam War, but most are published here for the first time, presenting a unique and dramatic view of this generation-defining conflict.