17-02-2025
Subject of iconic photo from Vietnam War will speak at veteran dinner in Ashland.
Kim Phuc Phan Thi, known as 'The Napalm Girl' in the famous 1972 Associated Press Vietnam photograph, will be the featured speaker March 29 at the Ashland Area Vietnam Era Veterans Recognition Dinner.
Kim was 9 years old when her photo was taken by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut.
She had just been hit with napalm mistakenly dropped by a South Vietnamese Air Force pilot as she was fleeing from her Communist-occupied village.
Kim's clothes were incinerated by the napalm and she was photographed running naked and screaming in pain from her burned body. The photograph was circulated around the world and earned a Pulitzer Prize.
Ut heroically left his Associated Press journalism assignment and rushed Kim to a hospital, where she was not expected to live. She lay in a morgue for three days before she received life-saving treatment.
Kim suffered severe, deep, disfiguring burns and as a young girl she felt no one could ever love her again. She was ashamed to have been photographed naked.
For many years she hated the photograph. She also resented the Communist government in Vietnam parading her around the international press circuit as a propaganda tool against the Vietnam War.
The photograph is now recognized as one of the most iconic depictions of the Vietnam War and perhaps the 20th century.
Since then, Kim has escaped to freedom and has been granted asylum in Canada where she lives with her husband and two children.
For years Kim struggled from the trauma she endured but now has healed both physically and emotionally. She credits her Christian faith for her recovery. In an effort to turn her trauma into something positive for others, she has founded The Kim Foundation International, which supports efforts for children suffering from the effects of war around the world.
She has also written a book about her life, "Fire Road," and travels the world telling her story in the hope it brings peace to others suffering trauma. She often says, 'I am no longer a victim of war. I am now a survivor of war.'
The event will be held 5-9 p.m. Saturday, March 29, at the Ashland Eagles, 400 Eastlake Drive. Tickets, priced at $15, are available at DeSanto Kellogg Law Office, 432 Center St., Ashland. Seating is limited. Call 419-289-1454 for more information.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Napalm Girl from Vietnam Era photograph speaking at veterans dinner
