World War II: Interview with U.S. Navy Photographer Jack Stewart

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Frontline photography began during the Crimean War in 1854 and has proliferated — in quality as well as quantity — ever since. World War II left a vast trove of photographic documentation, ranging from snapshots in veterans’ albums to award-winning images that continue to speak to generations. The principal producers of this pictoral record were civilian photojournalists, roving specialists from the different armed services and photographers permanently attached to a particular unit. Among the latter was Jack Stewart, one of 18 cameramen operating aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Essex between 1943 and 1945. In a recent interview for World War II Magazine, he described his experiences in the Pacific.

World War II: Tell us about your early years.

Stewart: I was born in Sylvania, Ga., on January 16, 1926. Then we moved to Fort Myers, Fla., but I kept coming back to Georgia every summer after that. I was a farmer. I picked cotton, ploughed, did all the farm chores and went to school in Florida.

WWII: Were you there when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941?

Stewart: Yes, and I reacted just like all the young kids — even though we were juniors in high school, we wanted to go to war. My brother and I both joined at the same time.

WWII: Why did you pick the Navy?

Stewart: Most of the fellows in that area chose the Navy for some reason. Just a few of my friends chose the Army, and one chose the Army Air Forces — he was shot down over Japan. I joined in August 1943, and was sworn in at Miami. I hoped my brother and I would be together, but we were not — he went to the Great Lakes, and I went to DeLand, Fla. I was telling my grandson I walked four miles to school in those days, and my feet always hurt. So I got into the Navy, and the guy measured my waist and then asked, ‘What size shoes do you wear?’ I said, ‘7 1/2.’ He brought out a 7 1/2, and it didn’t fit, so he measured my foot and it was 8 1/2. I had an 8 1/2 shoe from then on.

WWII: Was it a problem for you, training with all those men from all over the country?

Stewart: No, not really, because I played sports. It was easier to adapt with people, and being a country boy, I think you can talk to anybody. You just have that knack; you don’t have a shyness about you. But basic training was brutal, because I was so young, and I had a baby look. If you looked tough they didn’t beat on you, but if you looked young they’d beat the hell out of you. Where others would go through an obstacle course in boot camp, I had to go twice. And then I got on a barge with some older fellows, and they said, ‘Jack, what you need to do is get some sort of trade going for yourself.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know anything.’ I was an amateur, I probably had an IQ of 70, because education wasn’t the norm back in those days — you just wanted to survive and go to work. But they said that they were looking for photographers. So after boot camp I was transferred to Pensacola and went through a crash program on photography — stills, aerial cameras, development, movies and all that. Leif Erickson, the old movie star, he taught us movies. After that they decided that I could be an aerial photographer off a ship. I had a crash course in .30-caliber machine guns and the .45-caliber pistol. After that we took a bus to New Orleans and boarded a troop train…just converted cattle cars. Then we arrived at North Island, near San Diego, Calif. I think we stayed a couple of days getting our shots and things like that, and then were put on a small aircraft carrier.

WWII: You were going to Hawaii to join the fleet. How was the trip?

Stewart: Basically, most of us were sick, because going out there [to California] in that damn train, and then getting into the cold barracks at night, and nobody was taking care of you, you just got a whistle or something as you’d go to eat, then you were told to get shots, and I think some of the shots made us sick. I had a 102-degree fever and was so weak I couldn’t pick up my bag. I was on the hangar deck and had a mat or something underneath a fighter plane, and I couldn’t eat. The worst thing was when I looked out from the hangar deck and didn’t see land anymore. A lot of people got teary eyed. We didn’t know what we were going to do, and war didn’t mean anything until we got into it. The next thing we knew we were in Pearl Harbor.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, World War II

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