Wayne W. Shaw was a lieutenant when the squadron went to Vietnam aboard USS Boxer in April 1966. Educated as an architect, he also is a talented artist. During his time in Vietnam he was given a lifetime honorary appointment with the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Artist program, which holds the copyright on works that he produced during that era. He left the Marine Corps after completing his obligated service and has had a successful career as an architect. Most of these works were completed during 1966-67. However, he remains active and added three works in Nov 2024 based on events during his tour with HMM-265 in 1966-67.

CH-46s lifting from USS Okinawa (LPH-3) with flight of four overhead (watercolor, 1966)

CH-46 landing on carrier (watercolor)

CH-46 lifting from carrier (pen and ink sketch, 12 Jun 1966)

Flight of four CH-46s (pen and ink sketch, 28 Jun 1966)

CH-46 externaling 105mm howitzer (pen and ink sketch, 26 Jul 1966

Huey gunship circling burning building (watercolor)

CH-46 high above Perfume River heading home to Marble Mountain (watercolor, 1986)

CH-46 low near palace (watercolor, 1986)

CH-46 dropping parachutists (watercolor, 4 Nov 1966

CH-46 in rice paddy loading wounded with bullet splashes all around

CH-46 delivering 105 mm howitzer near runway (watercolor, 4 Dec 1966)

CH-46 holding single-wheel touchdown to load/unload (watercolor, 4 Dec 1966)

CH-46 unloading troops in paddy with napalm in background (watercolor, 15 Nov 1966)

CH-46 in hard turn above boats (watercolor, 24 Oct 1966)

Two 46s above large home (watercolor, 27 Sep 1966

CH-46 flying low near civilians on road (watercolor, 15 Nov 1966)

Two CH-46s above jagged mountain peaks (charcoal, 9 Oct 1966)

Paintings done in 2023 and 2024 based on events in 1966-67.

We picked a Recon team off the edge of a 2500 ft high sheer cliff. They were being chased down by the North Vietnamese and sent out an emergency call to be picked up as they had reached the end of their rope.

This picture shows a mission I flew with Jerry Condon in the second aircraft (upper left ‘46) and along with Major Driefer and Duncan McLaurin in the lead, the small helicopter over the mountain on the left of the painting. We had both gone out to drop off eight man Recon Teams at two different spots. The Major and Duncan went down to drop off their team at the base of the mountain. We had been flying in this area east of Dong Ha for a couple days. The spot they were going down to had not had anything suspicious, but on the drop off day there was a barbed wire fence line perpendicular to the mountain, so they were being cautious. As we saw them flare to land the whole right side came alive with machine gun puffs along with the orange flash of a .50 cal right at their side. We called our two top cover Phantoms and called Danang for more jets and started down to do whatever we would need to do to rescue the Major and Duncan. However, what we saw was their helicopter starting to climb out and we kept checking on the Major who kept saying he was OK which was quite a surprise to us. Later when we could talk they said that what we couldn’t see was that there was something like several hundred North Vietnamese on the hillside having lunch and we surprised them as much as they surprised us. They ran and dove into the ditch and just started pulling their machine gun triggers without aiming. We joined up with Duncan and the Major and took off with two new Phantoms and went to spot number 2 to drop off our guys.

Another view of the above picture.

Painting just for fun . . .

WW-I Boeing F4B3

WW-II Corsairs

Related Images: