By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 24, 2012
Chris Butler ©Stars and Stripes
Antwerp, Belgium, October, 1947: A soldier, a sailor and a Marine stand guard at a flag-draped coffin in Antwerp's main square during ceremonies marking the departure of the first bodies of Americans killed in World War II to be sent back to the States.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 23, 2012
Gene Bane ©Stars and Stripes
East Berlin, October, 1956: A visitor to East Berlin's "Garden of Remembrance" photographs one of the twin red granite Soviet flags and bronze statues of Red Army soldiers that overlook the burial place of more than 2,000 casualties of the World War II battle for the German capital. The stylized flags were built from stone taken from the ruins of Hitler's chancellery.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' 1956 story about the "Garden of Remembrance."
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 22, 2012
Lou Dombrowski ©Stars and Stripes
Tripoli, Libya, January, 1954: Airmen from the 7th Crash Rescue Boat Flight pose aboard one of the four reconditioned World War II PT boats used by the U.S. Air Force in missions to assist downed planes near Wheelus Field and elsewhere in the Mediterranean. The airmen said they were happy to serve on the sea rather than in the sky, although one reasoned that "anything can happen in the Air Force," and another said "they took me by mistake."
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' 1954 story about the 7th Crash Rescue Boat Flight.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 21, 2012
Wendy Bourland ©Stars and Stripes
Frankfurt, Germany, April, 1987: Werner Franz, left, who as a 15-year-old cabin boy survived the destruction of the "Hindenburg" in 1937, looks over photos with airship buff John Provan. Franz was cleaning china in the officers' quarters when the 804-foot-long German ship, held aloft by hydrogen, caught fire over Lakehurst, N.J. He escaped by breaking through the cloth of a nearby hatch.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' 1987 story about "Hindenburg" survivor Werner Franz.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 20, 2012
Rob Jagodzinski ©Stars and Stripes
Saudi Arabia, November, 1990: A U.S. Marine taking part in a chemical decontamination exercise in the weeks before the Gulf War gets some relief from the heat of his protective gear in the Saudi Arabian desert.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 18, 2012
Dan Warfield ©Stars and Stripes
Offenbach, Germany, November, 1977: Bob Seger leads the Silver Bullet Band through a song at Offenbach, Germany. Seger's career took off with the release of "Night Moves" in 1976, and he was one of rock music's most successful performers in the late 1970s and 1980s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 18, 2012
Dan Evans ©Stars and Stripes
Long Binh, Vietnam, June, 1971: Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, places sticks of incense on the graves of fallen South Vietnamese Army troops at the National Cemetery. Earlier, Abrams had participated in a ceremony honoring South Vietnam's Unknown Soldier.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 17, 2012
Merle Hunter ©Stars and Stripes
Madrid, Spain, March, 1961: Students at a Dominican theological seminary affiliated with the Church of St. Peter the Martyr play a game of table soccer during a break in their studies. Not only was the church — located near the U.S. Air Force's Royal Oaks housing area, just north of Madrid — one of Spain's most modern in the early 1960s, but the seminary also had its own FM radio station and a 150-seat theater.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' 1961 story about the Church of St. Peter the Martyr.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 16, 2012
Bob Wickley ©Stars and Stripes
Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, June, 1974: Petty Officer 2nd Class Ken Moore might appear to be a potential snack in the sights of a fearsome aquatic creature, but he's actually swimming in front of a search and rescue boat at the Iwakuni crash boat house. Moore, a qualified Navy diver, was assigned to the SAR boat team.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 15, 2012
George Penn ©Stars and Stripes
Frankfurt, Germany, February, 1954: Actor Errol Flynn, wearing an alpine hat and holding a large beer mug from a local brewery, is greeted at the Rhein-Main airport as he arrives for a March of Dimes benefit show.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' 1954 story about Errol Flynn in Frankfurt.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 14, 2012
Red Grandy ©Stars and Stripes
Norway, September 1954: Three members of the Norwegian Army's Horseback Company 2, taking part in NATO's Polar Mist exercise far above the Arctic Circle, utilize a type of oat-fueled transportation designed to reach difficult mountain positions.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 13, 2012
Maria Kiehl ©Stars and Stripes
Frankfurt, Germany, June, 1954: Employees in a Frankfurt office building enjoy a cooling dip in the city's first rooftop swimming pool, six stories above the street.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 12, 2012
Gerard Forken ©Stars and Stripes
South Vietnam, November 17, 1967: A heavily-loaded bus provides a test for a bridge being built by U.S. Navy Seabees on Route 1 between Phu Loc and Lang Co in South Vietnam's coastal lowlands. The previous bridge had been destroyed by Viet Cong shelling, and attacks continued during the construction effort.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' 1967 story about the Seabees at work.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 11, 2012
Chet King ©Stars and Stripes
Tokyo, March, 1979: Players from the the Gakushuin University football team line up to greet a one-time University of Michigan center, former President Gerald R. Ford, as he arrives at the school to receive an honorary degree and a medal.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' 1979 story about former President Ford's visit to Tokyo.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 10, 2012
Gus Schuettler ©Stars and Stripes
Germany, October, 1990: Almost a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, tall grass and rusty barbed wire frame a deserted watch tower at the former East-West border near Bad Hersfeld.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 9, 2012
Jack Baird ©Stars and Stripes
Da Nang, South Vietnam, April, 1966: Sgt. Henry D. Halloway, right, explains the workings of a Viet Cong-style spiked deadfall trap to Pfc. James M. Gatto during a class at the Marine Corps Demolition and Mine Warfare School at Da Nang.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' story about the warfare school and the booby traps used by the VC.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 8, 2012
©Stars and Stripes
Anzio, Italy, January, 1945: A woman hunts for firewood in the rubble heaps of Anzio, one year after the January 22, 1944 allied landing known as Operation Shingle. During the Anzio campaign, 2,800 American servicemembers were killed, 11,000 wounded and 2,400 captured.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 7, 2012
©Stars and Stripes
Frankfurt, West Germany, December, 1951: Sheet music in Frank Sinatra's luggage gets the once-over from a customs inspector as the singer and his wife, Ava Gardner, arrive at the Rhein-Main airport. The newlyweds were part of a group that was to play three shows at U.S. bases in Wiesbaden, then move on — without Sinatra and Gardner — to Furstenfeldbruck Air Base, Erding Air Depot, Neubiberg Air Base and Rhein-Main. Others on the tour included Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Rhonda Fleming.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 6, 2012
Dan Warfield ©Stars and Stripes
Saarbrücken, Germany, September, 1978: Frank Zappa entertains the crowd during his 1978 European tour. In an interview, the future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer complained of "corporations that make the difference in terms of distribution and financing for new artistic events, where these decisions are being made by committees of accountants." He also offered the opinion that "the committee is going to be one of the great retarding factors in the advancement of civilization."
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' September, 1978 Q&A with Frank Zappa.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 5, 2012
Wallace Beene ©Stars and Stripes
Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, February, 1966: Two airmen fuel an F-4C Phantom jet at the Cam Ranh Bay airstrip. To solve the problem of how to get fuel to the planes during construction at the base, a six-inch pipeline was built from a tanker anchored in the bay to the airstrip. The pipeline reportedly could move 30,000 gallons per hour.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' 1966 story about the fuel pipeline.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 4, 2012
Robert Kersey ©Stars and Stripes
Gio Linh, South Vietnam, March, 1967: A South Vietnamese soldier combs the hair of bound and blindfolded North Vietnamese Army prisoners in preparation for the arrival of Premier Nguyen Cao Ky. During his visit to the camp near the DMZ, Ky talked with the now-well-groomed POWs; he also signed two leaflets and a 175mm round which were fired toward North Vietnam by U.S. and ARVN artillery units.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 3, 2012
Gus Schuettler ©Stars and Stripes
Belgium, undated: After driving past this scene, Stars and Stripes photographer Gus Schuettler realized that he was about to miss a great shot, so he went back and focused in on the bovine guardian of the trees. Schuettler, who died October 2, 2012 in Florida, counted this photo as one of his favorites among the thousands he took in an award-winning career that stretched from the 1950s through the Gulf War.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Gus Schuettler's obituary, with a collection of some of his best photos.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 2, 2012
Red Grandy ©Stars and Stripes
Frankfurt, Germany, March, 1951: West Berlin Mayor Ernst Reuter talks to reporters at Rhein-Main Airport upon his return from a 12-day visit to the United States. Reuter, a former German Communist Party official who led the city through the Soviet blockade of 1948-49, said U.S. leaders had assured him of continued aid.
RELATED MATERIAL:
Stars and Stripes' 1951 story about Mayor Reuter's return to Germany.
By Joe Gromelski
Published: October 1, 2012
Ken George ©Stars and Stripes
Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, September, 1997: Staff Sgt. Joseph Young of Vilseck, Germany-based Company D, 2-2 Infantry, stands guard duty in front of a street sign adorned with a poster of fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic. The hole in the center of Karadzic's forehead was caused by shrapnel from a grenade that exploded two months earlier, but the message may have been less political than one might expect: A person involved in a lovers' triangle reportedly spotted the other two together at a cafe and tossed the grenade from a passing vehicle. No one was injured.
