Cameraman Daniel McGovern prepares to begin documenting the destruction after the drop of the Atomic Bomb.
http://www.icommag.com/may-2002/production-news.html
Posted on 12/18/2005 9:12:21 AM PST by NormsRevenge
LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. (AP) - Air Force Lt. Col. Daniel A. McGovern, a combat photographer who filmed the aftermath of the atomic bomb detonations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, has died. He was 96.
McGovern died of cancer Wednesday at his home in Laguna Woods.
Weeks after the bombs were dropped in August 1945, McGovern began taking photographs that have since appeared in history books, newspapers, television shows and movies. Earlier during the war, McGovern photographed President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House.
In 1943, McGovern flew missions as a cameraman while stationed in Chelveston, England. He survived two crashes and shot footage used in William Wyler's 1944 wartime documentary, "The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress."
McGovern talked about his war experiences with the Los Angeles Times when Steven Spielberg's World War II film, "Saving Private Ryan," was released in 1998.
"Combat men don't like to talk about what they did," he said. "Airplanes crashing, headless bodies with helmets still on. Limbs here, limbs there. You say, 'There but for the grace of God,' but you don't talk about it. You relive it in your sleep. You go through recollections of pulling bodies out of airplanes - an experience you never forget."
He said he spoke about what he witnessed because of encouragement from his children and grandchildren.
McGovern and several colleagues founded the International Combat Cameramen Association to recognize photographers who risked their lives shooting combat footage.
After World War II, McGovern wrote, directed and produced classified films about nuclear weapons at Lookout Mountain, a secret Cold War-era government film lab and studio in the Hollywood Hills.
He is survived by his sister, four children, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Cameraman Daniel McGovern prepares to begin documenting the destruction after the drop of the Atomic Bomb.
http://www.icommag.com/may-2002/production-news.html
R.I.P. I assume the radiation didn't kill him.
Note that AP threw in cancer to imply exactly that.
can't place the quote, though. oh, well.
Go figure. The guy lives to be 96 and radiation killed him. Amazing.
The ray's probably zapped the bad bugs out. 96 good for him.
Well, the mineral waters with higher radiation levels were used for medicinal baths. So who knows - radiation might be even good, if applied judiciously and taken in moderation.
To me, this image is what comes to mind every time the President or one of the Mullahs speak from Iran. The bomb can never be a "toy" for Islamists.
Without all that radiation giving him cancer, the poor guy might have lived to 97.
When I was in graduate school, a number of the older professors
(some educated on the GI Bill post WWII and Korea) had done
stints
at places like Rocky Mountain Arsenal, slinging radio-isotopes in
amounts that would send any sane person running for a very deep cave.
BUT...it was their fellow professors from depts. of Art or PoliSci that would
drop by to say "Well, I'm dying of cancer".
From what I could tell, it was far more dangerous to have a life of
wine, women, song and cigarettes...than pipetting radio-isotopes.
The radiation took a couple of months off. He surely would have lived to 96 1/2.
I heard that recently about home radon.
More lung cancer maybe, but less other stuff.
If the cause of death had not been reported, we'd be wallowing in speculation. It's basic reporting to give the "Why". I just wish the AP and other MSM would be consistent with it.
I went to the wrong poli sci school for undergrad. A few profs smoked, but wine, women and song were nonexistent. Some of the Peace Studies womyn would bare their breasts in protest every once in a while. /shudder/
I disagree. Most stories about the dead will almost always name the cause of death. Besides, it's no secret that atomic bombs put out lots of contamination in the form of radiation. The fact is, no one will probably ever know if being in that area after the fact, was the cause of his death, many years later.
they must of been torn between radiation and smoking since the picture in #1 sure looks to me like he's holding a cigarette in his hand... but the LSM isn't bias though. 8^)
Heard the same thing about George Burns (January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996) and his cigars.
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