Henri Huet (4 April 1927 – 10 February 1971) was a French war photographer, noted for his work covering the Vietnam War for the Associated Press (AP). Early life Henri Huet was born in Da Lat, French Indochina, the son of a Breton engineer and Vietnamese mother. At age five he was sent to France, where he was educated at Saint-Malo in Brittany and studied at the art school in Rennes, beginning his adult career as a painter. Huet later joined the French Navy and received training in photography, returning to French Indochina in 1949 as a combat photographer in the First Indochina War. After discharge from the navy at the end of the war ended in 1954, Huet remained in South Vietnam as a civilian photographer working for the French and U.S. governments. While employed by the United States Operation Mission (USOM) photo lab (1955–1960), he enjoyed the mentorship of lab director, Charles E. (Gene) Thomas, who himself had been a combat photographer in World War II. Several of Huet's photos reflect the influence of Thomas's work. He went on to work for United Press International (UPI), later transferring to the Associated Press (AP) in 1965, covering the Vietnam War. Photographic career Huet's photographs of the war were influential in moulding American public opinion. One of his most memorable series of photographs featured Pfc Thomas Cole, a young medic of the 1st Cavalry Division, tending fellow soldiers despite his own wounds. The series of twelve photographs was published in the 11 February 1966 edition of Life magazine, with one of the haunting images featuring on the cover. In 1967 the Overseas Press Club awarded Huet the Robert Capa Gold Medal for the "best published photographic reporting from abroad, requiring exceptional courage and enterprise". Death On February 10, 1971, during South Vietnam's invasion of southern Laos, known as Operation Lam Son 719, Huet and three other photojournalists joined the operation commander, Lt Gen Hoàng Xuân Lãm, on a helicopter inspection tour of the battlefront. The pilots of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) UH-1 Huey carrying the photojournalists lost their way and flew into the most heavily defended area of the Ho Chi Minh trail, where it and a second chopper were shot down by hidden North Vietnamese 37mm anti-aircraft guns, killing all eleven on the photographers' aircraft and four on the other. Huet was 43. Huet's fellow photographers