Dickey Chapelle was the first American female war photographer that was killed in action. Chapelle was known as the fearless war photographer who documented conflicts around the world from World War II to Vietnam. She was fearless, reckless, determined, and brave. Chapelle grew up fascinated by air travel and was born in Georgette Meyer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Chapelle studied aeronautical design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After she left MIT, she worked at her local air field as a writer on aeronautics and photographing planes. Chapelle got her interest in photography when she met her husband, former naval photographer Tony Chapelle, when she moved to New York. They got divorced 15 years later. Chapelle achieved a sponsorship from Trans World Airlines and jumped at the opportunity to follow her chosen profession. During WWII, Chapelle worked for the National Geographic as a war correspondent and a photojournalist. She was sent on a mission to cover the battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima. She spent her time photographing U.S Marines on training missions. Her assignment to Iwo Jima was to document the working nurses aboard the USS Samaritan anchored in the South Pacific and under strict order not to step off the ship. With her strong-mind, Chapelle managed to get onto the shore and photograph the frontlines and the disastrous landscape surrounding her with wasps of gun flew around her. After WWII, Chapelle spent the years covering wars and violence around the world travelling to report war zone stories. In 1956, while covering the Hungarian Revolution, Chapelle was arrested by the Russian accusing her as a spy and she spent 2 months in a Hungarian prison. Chapelle hides a tiny camera inside a glove and tossed it out a window on her way for interrogation. She later wrote about her experience as a Russian prisoner. During the early 1960s, Chapelle volunteered herself to document the war in Vietnam when it started. She documented honest and deep photographs of US troops on a search and destroy missions. In 1963, Chapelle received the National Press Photographers Association Photograph of the Year after the National Geographic published her 1st photograph of a US soldier actively engaged in combat. On an operations with the US Marines near Chu Lai Air Base, a lieutenant walking ahead of her stepped on a tripwire rigged in a landmine and caused the fallen of one of the bravest woman in history. Chapelle was hit by the neck by a piece of shrapnel. In 1965, at the age of 47, Chapelle passed away and reported as the 1st female reporter to be killed in action. She was buried with full military honors, a highly tribute for a civilian journalist. The US Marines remembered her honor by presenting a Dickey Chapelle Award, given to women who are recognizing to contributing to the welfare and well-being of the corps

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