First to the Front: The Untold Story of Dickey Chapelle, Trailblazing Female War Correspondent

First to the Front charts the life of Dickey Chapelle, a combat reporter who spent decades documenting global conflicts from the front lines. Lorissa Rinehart follows Chapelle’s trajectory from an aspiring pilot in the Midwest to her assignments covering Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The narrative details her subsequent incarceration in a Hungarian prison during the Cold War and her final reporting years in Vietnam. Through archival research, Rinehart documents Chapelle’s insistence on physical proximity to violence, including her qualification as a paratrooper to better photograph tactical operations.

This biography serves historians and readers interested in the evolution of twentieth-century war photography. It provides a technical look at how early female journalists navigated military bureaucracies to secure credentials and access to combat zones. Readers gain an understanding of the specific logistical and political barriers faced by independent female correspondents during the transition from conventional to guerrilla warfare. The book offers a clear account of how Chapelle’s visual style influenced battlefront documentation before she became the first American female reporter killed in action.