Then All Hell Broke Loose: The Odyssey of a Marine Corps Photographer in Vietnam

by Dennis Fisher

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811777605
Publisher:	Globe Pequot Publishing
Publication date:	11/04/2025
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Dennis Fisher served three years in the U.S. Marine Corps, rising to the rank of sergeant. He is a photographer whose career has spanned nearly sixty years, from study under the former executive editor of Life magazine to work with the Department of Defense and U.S. Air Force. His work has been featured by the National Archives. He lives near Battle Ground, Washington just across the river from Portland, Oregon and continues to be active in photography.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter   1: Security Platoon
Chapter   2: Division Photo
Chapter   3: Operation Cochise
Chapter   4: Operation Zippo
Chapter   5: Wounded in Action
Chapter   6: Back to Duty
Chapter   7: Home for the Holidays
Chapter   8: Foxtrot 2/7
Chapter   9: Operation Rock
Chapter 10: Task Force X-Ray
Chapter 11: Operation Houston
Chapter 12: Operation No Name II
Chapter 13: Operation Baxter Garden
Chapter 14: Tank Infantry Sweep
Chapter 15: Civic Action Programs
Chapter 16: Operation Allen Brook
Chapter 17: Tragedy Strikes
Chapter 18:  Back to Phu Bai
Chapter 19: Getting Short
Chapter 20: Short Timer
Chapter 21: Freedom Bird
Chapter 22: Reflections
Acknowledgements
Glossary of Terms, Jargon, and Acronyms

Editorial Reviews

If it's true that a picture is worth a thousand words, we owe our understanding of war to combat photographers, those assigned to document or illustrate wars have a unique and impactful perspective that was honed to a razor sharp edge in Vietnam. Vastly misunderstood but crucial to insights regarding the often controversial combat we experienced in Southeast Asia is the work of men like former Marine Combat Photographer Dennis Fisher. He was one of a handful of brave young enlisted men who tirelessly accompanied the grunts on large or small combat operations in an effort to insure the efforts of our American fighting men did not go undocumented or unnoticed. Fisher's debut book, appropriately titled Then All Hell Broke Loose, provides a stirring - often chilling - look at how he and others captured some of the images that have come to define the war in Vietnam for generations of Americans. If you've ever wondered who these guys were and how they survived deadly missions while focused on a camera viewfinder, Dennis Fisher's book will provide the answers.

Capt. Dale Dye

Then All Hell Broke Loose is a young Marine’s diary and recollections of his experiences during the Vietnam War. Fisher provides a fascinating story including photographs from the viewpoint of a junior enlisted man.  His perspective is that of the “grunt” who wasn’t privy to the “why” from leadership but like his fellow Marines only responded to their orders...  This book transports the reader into the life of a young man making life decisions... The book captures in riveting detail how they trudged through the jungle enduring oppressive heat, hidden land mines, and sudden enemy ambushes... He describes in compelling detail his final months photographing Marines as they continue the fight against the Viet Cong enemy.

Ken Hackman

In his memoir of serving as a Marine photographer during the Vietnam War, Dennis Fisher reflects, “It seems ironic to me that neither of the two most recognized photos” of the war—Eddie Adams’s photo of the Viet Cong prisoner being shot in the head by General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, and Nick Ut’s photo of Phan Thi Kim Phúc, the napalm girl—“depict the bravery or suffering of our troops.” Fisher’s Then All Hell Broke Loose: The Odyssey of a Marine Photographer in Vietnam should help to close that deficit. It pairs a blow-by-blow account of Fisher’s first-hand experiences in wartime with dozens of his remarkable photos. Fisher transports the reader back into the triumphs, tragedies, drudgery, danger, and emotional highs and lows experienced by common soldiers. In a war literature dominated by the perspectives of politicians and officers, primary sources from this vantage are invaluable. Veterans and their families, historians, students, aspiring photographers, and anyone interested in the Vietnam War, will find much to consider and learn while being carried along by Fisher’s engaging prose, interesting life-story, and talented photographic eye.

David J. Silverman

Dennis Fisher’s book is a powerful tribute to combat photography, capturing the 1st Marine Division’s operational history in Vietnam and his gripping account of documenting each maneuver battalion’s many battles that he traced in 1967–68. He documented the line units of our 1st Bn, 27th Marines in April of 1968. His writing places the reader into the action, where he and his fellow Marine photographers & journalists along with the grunts they were covering faced instant chaos and death at some of the most inopportune moments. Places, firefights, ambushes, and times come alive, transporting the reader back to that distant war. A must-read addition to the United States Marine Corps' rich history.

Grady T. Birdsong

Dennis I. Fisher served in Vietnam as a Marine infantry rifleman from December 1966 to June 1967 and then as a combat photographer from June 1967 to August 1968, the years the Marines experienced their most intense combat.  He wrote Then All Hell Broke Loose: The Odyssey of a Marine Corps Photographer in Vietnam for two reasons: to provide a narrative of his Marine service and experiences in Vietnam for his family and to provide a tribute to his fellow Marines with whom he fought alongside in Vietnam. As a combat photographer, Fisher was on the front lines and shared the hardships and dangers the men in combat faced as he photographed the battles they fought.  He points out that the work of combat photographers with their “boots on the ground” perspective was rarely available to the public during the war and that their photographs depict the “courage, hardships, and suffering of our men at war” far better than those of civilian photographers that the public did see. What gives Fisher’s book a special and invaluable quality is his weaving of more than 150 of the photographs he took into the narrative of his experiences. Despite being seriously wounded, Fisher returned home in good health.  “I was one of the lucky ones,” he somberly recalls near the end of his book. His family, his fellow Marines, and anyone who wants to better understand the Vietnam war are lucky he decided, after years of thinking about how to preserve the knowledge of his wartime experience, to write this book.  It deserves a wide audience.

Michael G. Kort

I just read Then All Hell Broke Loose and it brings back a lot of memories and feelings. The pictures took me right back to Vietnam and with them came the smells and memories both good and bad. I was there. I served with Foxtrot 2/7 from late May 1968 until I was medevacked in May 1969... The author had a lot more opportunity to move around, visit different units, record for posterity our environment and had a much better understanding of the bigger picture of what was going on. He saw so much more than the average grunt and has done a great job of portraying our lives at that time. He has expanded on a lot of our emotions and tribulations during and after our tours that a lot of us experienced... Most, if not all, Marines who served can relate to everything in this book."

M/Sgt. John Decker

In his insightful memoir Then All Hell Broke Loose, Dennis Fisher offers the reader a window into the unique role of the Marine combat photographer. During Fisher’s eighteen month tour in Vietnam his mission took him from the street fighting of Hue City to operations in the jungled mountains west of the Arizona Territory, and the experiences he shares are vivid and emotionally moving.

Captain Dan Guenther

Then All Hell Broke Loose is a young Marine’s diary and recollections of his experiences during the Vietnam War. Fisher provides a fascinating story including photographs from the viewpoint of a junior enlisted man.  His perspective is that of the “grunt” who wasn’t privy to the “why” from leadership but like his fellow Marines only responded to their orders...  This book transports the reader into the life of a young man making life decisions… The book captures in riveting detail how they trudged through the jungle enduring oppressive heat, hidden land mines, and sudden enemy ambushes… He describes in compelling detail his final months photographing Marines as they continue the fight against the Viet Cong enemy.”

Ken Hackman. Chief Photojournalist of the Air Force (Ret.)