“Barr, you go down and get a close-up of that bomb."

William Thomas Barr

The U.S.S. Enterprise CV-6 at Pearl Harbor in the late afternoon under a threatening sky; the sailor in the foreground is Robert D. Anderson, PhoM 2/C [September 24, 1945] War: World War II, 1939-1946 Branch: Navy Unit: USS Enterprise (CV 6) Service Location: Traverse City, Michigan; Clinton Naval Air Station, Burns Flat, Oklahoma; Bougainville Island (Solomon Islands); San Diego, California; Hawaii; Leyte Island and Luzon (Philippines); Formosa; China; Japan; Iwo Jima; Okinawa Island (Ryukyu Islands); Ulithi (Caroline Islands) Rank: Photographer's Mate First Class

Photographer William Barr enlisted in the Navy in 1942 after a friend advised him that he could ply his profession and serve his country during World War II. Barr's studio became the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Enterprise, where he took pictures of crippled planes coming in for landings and Japanese attacks on his and other ships. His ship was nicknamed the Lucky Enterprise for its ability to survive so many kamikazes and keep right on sailing. While Barr was aboard, he saw seven such attacks and one other close shave, when a Japanese bomber snuck into the formation of landing U.S. craft. The enemy pilot dropped his bomb, but it only rolled to a stop on the deck, and that was when Barr got the memorable order to snap some pictures of the unexploded ordnance.