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Posted on 05/05/2004 12:00:29 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.
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 A Japanese Kamikaze is shown just before colliding with the USS Missouri during the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific Ocean, April 11, 1945. Recent findings suggest the historic photo was taken by Baker 2nd Class Harold ``Buster'' Campbell, one of the ship's cooks. PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -- When the air alert sounded aboard the USS Missouri that day in 1945 off Okinawa, one of the battleship's cooks raced to a bridge armed not with a gun, but a camera. From his perch some 70 feet above the action on the main deck, Baker 2nd Class Harold "Buster" Campbell captured the fierce air battle, snapping away with a specialized 161 mm aerial photography camera as a single Japanese kamikaze pilot penetrated the ship's formidable anti-aircraft fire. "He kept coming through the greatest ack ack I've ever seen," reads Campbell's journal entry of that day, April 11, 1945. "He then came direct at the ship and hit us on the starboard quarter on the main deck, burst into flames. I was shaking but felt relieved after he hit." The entry continues: "I took a beautiful shot of him as he hit ... "  The Kamikaze left his Machine Gun in the Barrel of the 40mm Gun But the photo for years has been credited to someone else. The image of the A6M Zero kamikaze taken at the moment of impact has become one of the most recognized photos from the Battle of Okinawa. It is featured prominently in books, souvenirs and aboard the decommissioned Missouri, now anchored off Ford Island as a museum and memorial. The photo has long been credited the late Len Schmidt, one of the Missouri's official photographers who also shot the April 11 battle and the kamikaze's collision. Navy historians say photos weren't credited to individual photographers until 1973. Schmidt has been given credit since then based on his body of work and firsthand account of the attack, said Mike Weidenbach, curator for the USS Missouri Memorial Association.  It wasn't until last year, when Campbell's son saw the photograph in a souvenir book his daughter brought back from a Hawaii vacation, that Missouri historians were alerted to the possible discrepancy. Dan Campbell, a 52-year-old government worker from Baltimore, contacted Weidenbach about his father's story. If the curator wanted more proof, the son had his late father's entire collection of Missouri memorabilia _ a small suitcase full _ that he wanted to donate. The collection included his father's handwritten journal, a letter opener made from the kamikaze debris and more than 200 pictures. Dan Campbell scanned some of the photos and sent them to Weidenbach on a CD. Now, with the complete collection in hand, Weidenbach has seen enough to believe the son's claim is credible.  "We saw there was photographs of the kamikaze attack that we had never seen before," Weidenbach said. Using the photos, Missouri historians matched features and sight lines to pinpoint the exact spot from where the photo was taken: a bridge eight levels above the main deck. "We went back to Lennie Schmidt's description of where he was," Weidenbach said. "He tells it himself that he's below that level. He couldn't have taken this picture from the perspective he says he was at. All the pieces just started to fall in place." Weidenbach, who's still cataloging and preserving the collection, said the next step is to convince the Naval Historical Center of who deserves the credit.  USS Missouri (BB-63) Photographed during her shakedown cruise, circa August 1944. This image was retouched by Wartime censors to remove radar antennas. Officials at the Washington-based center said Friday they were unaware of the Campbell collection and the possibility that the photo was miscredited. Spokesman Jack Green, who also was the center's photo curator for six years, said the claim sounds like something that would be "very, very difficult to validate." If the center receives more information and documentation, its photographic section could study the matter and issue an opinion on who should get credit, Green said. "But that cannot be a definitive thing," he said. "I'm not saying the fellow is wrong, but this would be something that would be difficult, if not impossible, to prove." Schmidt died a few years ago. Pat Ferrigno, another of the ship's official photographers who raced to the bridge with Campbell during the April 11 battle, died sometime in the 1970s, Weidenbach said. Buster Campbell died in 1966 at age 43, but not before sharing his wealth of war stories with his son.  Dan Campbell said his father, who persuaded a friend in the photo shop to let him shoot pictures as a hobby, was more concerned with the finished product than the credit. Buster Campbell reveals that trait in a May 17, 1945, journal entry about a conversation with Ferrigno. "He said the 'ex' (executive officer) told him the picture of the plane hitting the ship was said to be the greatest picture so far of any action on a ship to be taken in this war," Campbell wrote. "And to think I took it. ... Of course no one knows I took the picture except some of my friends as I told Pat to take the credit. I don't care much."
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HELLO!!!
It's nice to be reminded of what we're fighting for.
This is great. I hope some of this gets published. I'll bet there are a lot of pictures and stories still put away in boxes we haven't heard yet about WWII.
Amen for that. Too many of our ships saw that fate.
Good to see you Dave.
I find it a shame that many Americans don't know the history of those ships' names.
...And in the heaven's you could hear him say Ooh-Rah!
It is indeed! I hope your day is a good one. No more train wrecks.
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