--- title: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Real Woman Who Came Before Tina Fey description: Dickey Chapelle was the first American female war correspondent to be killed in action canonical: https://time.com/4217779/dickey-chapelle-photos/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-04T14:00:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:31.288Z article:section: History og:title: The Journalist Who Paved the Way for Tina Fey's 'Whiskey Tango Foxtrot' og:description: Dickey Chapelle was the first U.S. female war correspondent to die in action og:url: https://time.com/4217779/dickey-chapelle-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b2e58a5bed9b502/69887d3c428a9e7160cd15c5/160211-dickey-chapelle-portrait-1958.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: DIckey Chapelle Portrait og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Journalist Who Paved the Way for Tina Fey's 'Whiskey Tango Foxtrot' twitter:description: Dickey Chapelle was the first U.S. female war correspondent to die in action twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b2e58a5bed9b502/69887d3c428a9e7160cd15c5/160211-dickey-chapelle-portrait-1958.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Journalist Who Paved the Way for Tina Fey's _Whiskey Tango Foxtrot_ by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) Mar 4, 2016 2:00 PM CUT  This was Dickey Chapelle's favorite photograph of herself at work, taken in Milwaukee in 1958 by Marine Master Segeant Lew Lowery. This was Dickey Chapelle's favorite photograph of herself at work, taken in Milwaukee in 1958 by Marine Master Segeant Lew Lowery.From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#1942 by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) Mar 4, 2016 2:00 PM CUT In the new movie _Whiskey Tango Foxtrot_, Tina Fey plays a journalist inspired by reporter Kim Barker, whose memoir _The Taliban Shuffle_ is the [source](http://deadline.com/2015/11/tina-fey-taliban-shuffle-release-date-margot-robbie-martin-freeman-1201616137/ "undefined") for the movie’s story of a woman making her way in the war correspondents’ boy’s-club. The world chronicled by [Barker, ](http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-kim-barker-whiskey-ae-0228-20160226-story.html "undefined")who now works for the New York _Times,_ and her modern-day colleagues might not have been possible without the work of people like Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle. Chapelle was a photographer, but she came to the medium relatively late. In the 1930s, she studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a full scholarship, but had to leave after she let her passion for adventure detract from her schoolwork. She landed a publicity job with TWA and took photography classes with one of the airline’s in-house cameramen, whom she would soon marry. When the outbreak of World War II led to her husband’s going to work as a war photographer, she applied for her own press pass. What began as an attempt to stay close to her husband led to decades of dangerous but vital work, which brought Chapelle to Iwo Jima and Okinawa.  This was Dickey Chapelle's favorite photograph of herself at work, taken in Milwaukee in 1958 by Marine Master Segeant Lew Lowery. From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#1942 The marriage crumbled in the 1950s, but Chapelle returned to the front—and not, as she would say, as a “girl reporter” but as a true war correspondent. That was an important distinction, and a crucial one for the history of women in the field. Chapelle, though often paid less than her male colleagues, among other indignities, did not turn away from danger. Indeed, on Nov. 4, 1965, Chapelle was killed in South Vietnam, becoming the first American female war correspondent to die in action. On a marker placed where she fell, the Marines with whom she worked left a simple but poignant message: “She was one of us, and we will miss her.” The photos above are drawn from a recent book on Chapelle’s life and work, [_Dickey Chapelle Under Fire_](http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whspress/books/book.asp?book%5Fid=471 "undefined") by John Garofolo.  Vietnamese children respond to mortar fire, ca. 1961-62. From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#115436  Vietnamese soldiers interrogate suspected Vietcong, ca. 1961-62. From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#115449  Vietnamese paratroopers escort a Vietcong suspect to a waiting helicopter after catching him with Communist propaganda, ca. 1961-1962. From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#115638  Villagers carry the body of fallen soldier, ca. 1961-62. From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#115520  South Vietnamese troops interrogate Vietcong, 1962. From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#115477  Vietnamese soldiers, on their way to assault a village near Soc Tranh suspected of harboring Vietcong, disembark from US Army helicopters, 1962. From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#86868  A group of Vietnamese women train with rifles in a village near the Laotian border, ca. 1962. From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#86762  Vietnamese troops move through razor grass field, ca. 1961-65. From the book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Wisconsin Historical Images collections, WHi Image ID#115522  Marines wait to load helicopters, 1965. 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