Napalm (Yo lo vi)

This scene documents an event witnessed by the artist and the horrific effect of napalm bombing. Jones says of this work: "This is my most vivid memory of the Vietnam War. Walking across a napalmed scorched landscape my platoon came upon several horribly burnt and bloated bodies of enemy soldiers caught in napalm bombing. I remember the pity I felt at the time thinking that even thought they were the enemy this must be a horrendous way to die, coming out of a tunnel gasping for air in the oxygen deprived atmosphere, only to be burnt alive in the next bombing run. The smell of burnt flesh that permeated the air was nauseating and unforgettable. It is also a denunciation of the use of chemicals in war. In this work I pay homage to Francisco de Goya's masterwork of etchings, "The Disasters of war". The subtitle of this work "Yo lo vi", (I saw it), is taken from plate no. 44 of [Goya's] series. It also references plate no. 6 of Otto Dix's famous series of etchings on WWI titled "Der Krieg" (The War)."

Geoffrey Jones (55178) joined the Army in 1966, at the age of 17, as a means of escaping the constraints of a small country town. He served for six years and complete two deployments tours of Vietnam (1968 and 1970). He was discharged in 1971.