Puzzled Over Report: Mrs. J. W. Wright looks at a globe showing the Soviet Union. It was reported in Moscow that her Air Force husband defected to the Soviet Union because he opposed the Vietnam War. Mrs. Wright said she was puzzled over the report. Her husband is an 11-year veteran stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base at Bossier City, Louisiana. He has been listed AWOL since February 3, New Orleans.

On recto: typewritten title and date. On verso: date stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Absent without leave
• Barksdale Air Force Base
• Bossier City
• Civil Rights Movements
• Defections
• Female Portraits
• Globes
• Injustice
• Mrs. J. D. Wright
• New Orleans
• Racial Discrimination
• Soviet Union
• United States Air Force
• Vietnam War
• War Protests

• Image Dimensions: 9 5/8 x 6 7/8 in. (24.45 x 17.46 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 9 15/16 x 7 15/16 in. (25.24 x 20.16 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen