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37 years later, a Vietnam memento

This is the original photo of Steele, taken in 1970 and scanned. Back when Chuck Steele was flying a gunship over Vietnam, he wanted to preserve the sights and sounds for posterity. Unfortunately, all that was available was a 35 mm camera.

"When I was 'getting short' in my tour in Vietnam, I wanted to get a photo of the sights we used in our UH-1E gunships," Steele writes. "They were primitive but effective."

The gunner on the left side of the helicopter snapped a photo of Steele, but the background in the windscreen were indistinct and void of detail.

"It was the smoky season. Vietnamese rice farmers burned their fields before planting a new rice crop," and Steele said some pilots described it as "flying in a bottle of milk."

Technology finally caught up with Steele, as he commissioned San Diego artist and sister, Valerie Steele, to attempt a painting based on the photo. They scanned the photo into a computer. Meanwhile, Valerie searched on the internet to find another photo with more visual detail, and she incorporated those into the portrait. The sample she settled on is called "A Gunner's View" and it was found at the Marine popasmoke.com website.

This photo, "A Gunner's View," was found on the internet, showing details of the Vietnam terrain. Valerie painted the portrait, entitled "Vietnam: Window Seat" with acrylic on canvas, incorporating some of big brother Chuck's memory details from 37 years ago..

"I envision a scud running over the jungle during the monsoon season, flying on top of very low clouds, hoping the whole world does not sock in," Steele writes.

RIGHT: Big sister and artist Valerie Steele blended the two photos and painted "Vietnam: Window Seat" in acrylic on canvas. Submitted photos