Crossing the Pass of Clouds: An Army Photographer's Vietnam Journal

Crossing the Pass of Clouds: An Army Photographer’s Vietnam Journal is an intimate portrait of the last years of the Vietnam War in 147 black-and-white pictures and a series of vignettes written by photographer Lon Holmberg. As the photographer for American Commanding General Creighton Abrams, Holmberg had the opportunity to document pivotal moments involving a range of influential historical figures. Among the many remarkable images Holmberg has captured are photographs of South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, US Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger during his journey to China, a trip that paved the way for President Nixon’s historic visit the following year.

In Crossing the Pass of Clouds, Holmberg presents a captivating and deeply personal account of his experiences during his service as an army photographer in Vietnam in 1971. Through a combination of vivid narration and poignant images, this memoir provides an intimate glimpse into the complexities of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, both for the country and for the narrator. Holmberg recounts his assignment in the Ashau Valley in the north (a significant infiltration route for the North Vietnamese Army); a daring reconnaissance mission across the border in Laos; and his time at a firebase in central Vietnam near the enigmatic Hai Van Pass (known in English as the Pass of Clouds). Yet even as Holmberg’s photographs look squarely at the realities of war, they also explore beyond it, illuminating the faded elegance of Saigon, the lives of indigenous communities and of farmers working in fields, and the eventual transition of Vietnam into an industrialized society.

About the Author :
Lon Holmberg is a documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work includes the PBS documentaries Doing Time and Mending Hearts. His photographs and writing have appeared in such publications as Streetlight: A Journal of Art and Literature, and he has taught English and photography at various schools, including a one-month intensive workshop in English at the University of Hue in Vietnam.

Review :
"An engaging memoir in words and images. . . . Anyone with an interest in the American war in Vietnam in its later stages will appreciate this rare look at one soldier’s tour of duty through words and scores of evocative pictures. (The VVA Veteran) Crossing the Pass of Clouds is a layered tale well told. The photographs are superb. This is as good as it gets in Vietnam War memoirs." - Robert K. Brigham, author of This Is a True War Story: An Adoptee’s Memoir

"Lon was an 84 Bravo, an enlisted still photo specialist with the 221st Signal Company Pictorial. Our job was to record the war in all its aspects, from combat to dental hygiene. In some ways, as everyone on both sides leaves the field permanently, the images we leave behind are the prism through which future generations will view the war. Yet we, who took those images, remain anonymous. Our story untold. It’s as if the images took themselves. They did not. Lon’s remarkable, well-written, thoughtful, and very personal memoir puts a face on at least one of those photographers and brings his story poignantly full circle with his return to Vietnam decades later. It’s a compelling read from the unique angle of the Vietnam combat photographer—and, oh yes, the pictures, of which there are many, are first rate." - 1LT Paul Berkowitz, 221st Signal Company Pictorial, RVN

"Holmberg’s straightforward, impressionistic photos capture the reality of the war and the country, at least as I saw it and felt it at the time. Seeing them drew me back to both the beauty and the pain." - John Graham, former US Foreign Service Officer and former advisor, Combined Operations Rural Development Support (CORDS)

"Holmberg writes easy-going, self-deprecating prose, which is often lyrical and always approachable in the ways it shows us the many human sides of one person’s war. He mixes the comic with the unbearable using a light, gentle touch. He is never heavy-handed, and he avoids the sensational. The same holds true for his photographs. Holmberg does not show the human wreckage of war. Instead, he gives us humane, sympathetic, respectful images of civilians and soldiers, generals and government officials. Although Holmberg’s work often shows a deep sense of humor, there is also great pathos in these personal photographs, even the most seemingly trivial, for they, too, are haunted, indirectly, masterfully, by the unseen images of the human cost already imprinted within us." - Stephen Cushman, Robert C. Taylor Professor of English, University of Virginia