Cessnateur: Memorial Day

To commemorate Memorial Day here in the US and pay tribute to those who gave their lives for our country, I thought I'd try to find a cool old photo of a tough-looking fighter pilot.

I figured a shot of a WWII pilot would be perfect, perhaps showing him posing in front of his P-51

Then I ran across this series of photos by Howard Sochurek...a man who himself served in WWII prior to working as a photojournalist.

link to full-sized photo

Over the years, Howard conducted photo shoots from behind enemy lines, covering the First Indochina War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

He won many awards for his work, which comes as no surprise when you take some time to appreciate it.

I really love this set of shots, featuring an unnamed pilot flying what I believe is a C-47 in Vietnam.

The first shot is my favorite, showing him looking back at the camera while enjoying a cigar and perhaps cracking a joke.

In contrast to carefully-posed shots of command staff and fighter pilots with their pressed uniforms and spit-shined shoes, he appears fatigued and a bit disheveled, as though he’s been at it for months without leave, good food, or quality lodging. Which was probably the case.

But still, he appears relatively upbeat and in good spirits, at least for the photo shoot.

Subsequent shots convey the teamwork that was essential to meet the demands of flying transport planes into and out of jungle airstrips in Vietnam.

The final shot in this set features our unnamed pilot looking back over his shoulder with a particularly steely-eyed expression, perhaps judging his turn to base as he reads the terrain and prepares for an approach to what must have been just one of a seemingly endless series of remote airstrips.

The great thing about this set of photos is how it takes the viewer behind the scenes and into the trenches of one of the less glamorous flying jobs that was nevertheless crucial to the war effort.

We can almost smell the cigar smoke and feel the big radial engines as we reflect upon the sacrifices made by the brave men and women who have selflessly chosen to serve their country.

So here’s to them, and particularly to those who never made it home. May they never be forgotten.

link to full-sized photo

UPDATE - After performing some additional research, I've uncovered a few key pieces of information about these photos.

First, the aircraft. It is, in fact, a Douglas C-47B Skytrain, serial number 43-48415. It was, for a time, stored at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tuscon, AZ. Since then, it has been converted to an EC-47 and put on display at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.