Photographs from 1943 - "The Greatest Generation"

Scott Field in Illinois, 10/43

by Skip Cohen

A significant reason I love Throwback Thursdays is the fun of the "hunt." Like so many of you, I've got boxes of photographs and memorabilia in storage that I've never had the time to sort through. Well, yesterday, while bringing down the Halloween decorations, I stumbled on a binder of images my Dad had saved from W.W. II.

That's Dad on the far right in the shot above. And while I don't know anybody in the photo, Dad was meticulous about writing down when, where and who on the back of every print. This was captured in June of 1943 in basic training at the University of North Dakota.

But as I wandered through the album, it was bittersweet. Sweet, because I loved the style of the images and everything in Dad's army album, but bitter because he's no longer around to share the stories about what they were all feeling at the time. When I was a kid, now and then, a name would pop up who Dad would reference as a buddy from the war, but that was it.

Dad was in the Army Air Corps and trained as a pilot and navigator. At some point, he was grounded because of a perforated eardrum, which put him in the tower at bases in the South Pacific. 

Taking Dad on HonorFlight, I remember him being asked if he ever got to meet General MacArthur. His answer, "No, but I brought his plane in a few times, and I was part of the team to set up his office in Japan after the war."

The last image I found is below. And as usual, Dad wrote on the back. He wrote "Our gang---and I do mean comedy," describing the incredible friendship between these four friends. The image was photographed at Nikko, Japan, in November 1945.

That's my Dad on the far right, and "Uncle" Stan, the second one on the left. Stan Unger was Dad's best friend throughout his life, his accountant in Cleveland and and somebody who we frequently saw when I was a kid. 

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If you haven't gone off in search of a throwback image, take the time today. It's a perfect break from the stress of business. Whether you share the images in a post or not, enjoy the career field you've chosen as a photographer. Our industry gives people the ability to turn the intangible into memories they can hold in their hands and cherish for a lifetime.

​Happy Throwback Thursday!