This woman was likely the first journalist to ever make a combat jump

In February 1967, the U.S. Army launched Operation Junction City, one of the largest operations of the Vietnam War and one that included the only major combat jump of the war.

Joining the 173rd Airborne Brigade on their historic mission was a young civilian, Catherine Leroy, who many believe to be the first civilian journalist ever to participate in a combat jump.

Catherine Leroy was born in Paris in 1945 in the shadow of World War II. Raised in a convent, she was intrigued by the photos of World War II she saw. Then in 1966, at the age of 21, she bought a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia and left home with nothing but a camera and $100 in her pocket.

When she arrived in Saigon, she met legendary photojournalist Horst Faas who gave her three rolls of film and promised to pay her $15 for every photo that was published.

At 5 foot nothing and weighing only 85 pounds, she humped the jungles in combat boots two sizes too big – she couldn't find any small enough to fit her size four feet – and carrying near her body weight in camera equipment and other gear. But she was determined to capture the human element of war.

Not long after arriving in country, she found her way to the front lines with American forces. Her determination lead her so far forward that on February 22, 1967 she joined the 173rd during their combat jump as part of Operation Junction City. This made her the first newsperson to jump into combat with American forces. However, she was soon slapped with a 6-month ban from the front lines for cussing out an officer – in her defense, most of the English words she had learned up to that point had come from hanging out with foul-mouthed grunts, so cussing was about all she could do in English.

In early 1968, Leroy was with the Marines during the Battle of Khe Sanh. It was while she was with the Marines battling for Hill 881 that she took her most famous photo "Corpsman in Anguish" depicting a Navy Corpsman tending to a wounded Marine as he passes away.

Two weeks later during more intense fighting Leroy was wounded and nearly killed by an enemy mortar. She was badly wounded and as she lay stunned, she heard what she thought would be her last words: "I think she's dead, Sarge." She credits her camera with saving her, as the largest piece of shrapnel destroyed it instead of entering her chest.

Later in 1968, she was captured by the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive. Relying on nothing but wit and charm she was able to convince her captors to let her go. Before she left, she managed to do something no other photographer had done in the war, get pictures of the NVA behind their own lines. These pictures made the cover of Life Magazine under the title "A Remarkable Day in Hue: The Enemy Lets Me Take His Picture."

During her time in Vietnam, Leroy also became known as "the woman with the wine" to the troops out in the field. Instead of carrying the heavier C rations in her already heavy pack she would bring a six-pack of wine in cans and trade or share it for food with the troops she was with.

Leroy also said she never had a problem being a woman in Vietnam. "I was never propositioned or found myself in a difficult situation, sexually," she told the Chicago Tribune in 2002. "When you spend days and nights in the field, you're just as miserable as the men - and you smell so bad anyway."

Catherine Leroy would continue to cover the war in Vietnam until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. In 1972, she made a documentary, "Operation Last Patrol," about anti-war Vietnam Veterans, particularly Ron Kovic. Kovic was inspired by the movie to write a book, "Born on the Fourth of July," that would later become a movie starring Tom Cruise.

After Vietnam she covered other war zones. She covered the civil war in Lebanon and later the Lebanon War between Israel and Lebanon. She co-authored a book, "God Cried," about the siege of West Beirut by the Israeli Army in 1982.

During her career, she was awarded the George Polk Picture of the Year in 1967 and the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award for her coverage of the street fighting in Beirut in 1976. Leroy died of Lung Cancer in 2006.