Nick Ut, Napalm Girl Photographer, Honored for 51-Year Career

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The Board of Supervisors honored retired Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Nick Ut Tuesday, crediting his famous photo of a young Vietnamese girl burned in a napalm bombing with shifting public opinion against the Vietnam War.

The board recognized Ut's 51-year career with the Associated Press by declaring Tuesday Nick Ut Day.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas highlighted Ut's coverage of the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles, the O.J. Simpson trial and other historic moments. However, it is the photo Ut snapped on June 8, 1972, "that is seared into our memories," Ridley-Thomas said.

As Ut documented Vietnamese refugees fleeing their village that day, four napalm bombs were dropped outside Trang Bang.

"Nick watched in horror as people emerged from the fireball and smoke," Ridley-Thomas said, including a 9-year-old girl "whose skin was beginning to melt as she stepped forward."

As Ridley-Thomas told the story of how Ut covered the girl, Kim Phuc, with a coat and drove her and other injured children to a nearby hospital, the photographer wiped a tear from his face.

The local hospital refused to admit her, directing Ut to take her to the morgue. But the photographer was ultimately able to get Kim admitted at a plastic surgery center in Saigon, where she spent the next 14 months undergoing 17 surgical procedures. They remain in touch to this day.

Supervisor Janice Hahn said the photo changed the momentum of the war.

"That picture was so significant and so telling of the horrors of war," Hahn said. "We owe you a huge debt of gratitude."

Ut, who was born in Vietnam, worked for the AP in Hanoi, South Korea and Tokyo, before moving to Los Angeles. He retired in March.

The photographer said he'd spent 40 years in Los Angeles, adding only, "Thank you so much."

-- City News Service. Photo courtesy of Alexander Nguyen