Scope and Contents

Two linear feet of material including newspapers, printed material, photographs, slides, artifacts, video, maps and a CD of digitized images from his scrapbook document his service in the Vietnam War where he was stationed at the Commander U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam Photo Laboratory as a petty officer of the shooting crew and went on missions with the U.S. Navy Seals, the Vietnamese Navy River Assault Groups (RAGS), the U.S. Navy River Patrol Boats (PBRs) and the U.S. Navy Seabees.

Biographical / Historical

Leon Robinson was born in November 1931. In 1950, he volunteered for the United States Navy as a Combat Photographer, ranked a Photographers Mate 1st Class (PH1). Robinson was stationed at the Commander U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam Photo Laboratory as a petty officer of the shooting crew, but frequently went on missions with the U.S. Navy Seals, the Vietnamese Navy River Assault Groups (RAGS), the U.S. Navy River Patrol Boats (PBR's) and the U.S. Navy Seabees. During the Vietnam Conflict, he was involved in campaigns such as the 1968 Tet Offensive and received the following medals: Air Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal (sixth award), the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal (5 Bronze Stars), the National Defense Service Medal (2nd Award), the Presidential Unit Commendation Medal, the Navy Unit Commendation Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon. After twenty-one years in the United States Navy, two years of which was served in Southeast Asia, Robinson retired in 1971 as a PH1 - E6. He then worked for the United States Postal Service for twenty-one years and later became involved in the Angel Fire Vietnam Memorial in New Mexico and the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University.