One in a million

One in a million, originally uploaded by Septguy.

There are million's of photos like this, so it's not unique from a photographic image standpoint. It is very unique for me, it sits in a frame close to my desk at home. I've been thinking of doing something with this photo on flickr for a while and have kept procrastinating. I've now ended my procrastination.

The Ken Burns series "The War" recently ran on PBS. I liked his approach, it made the veterans of WWII and their families more human. It taught me some things I didn't know about WWII and what some of our veterans endured.

Unfortunately I never told my dad thank you for serving in WWII. He died in 2001. When I was growing up my mom kept a lot of family photos in a tin chalk container in her closet. Periodically I would take the can out, sit in the middle of the living room floor and look at them. This was one of them, there were others of my dad with some of his buddies in Italy. It's part of the reason I became interested in photography, I'd become lost in my imagination looking at the photos, wondering about the places and the people, the "guys" mostly in uniform in those far away places.

My dad wasn't in combat, he served in the Army Air Corps in southern Italy helping keep the planes in the air. Both his brothers were in the military at the same time, along with his brother-in-law.

My grandmother has a proud smile on her face here and I feel pretty sure she's holding his hand, he's got it hidden a bit in his left hand. His dad, who I barely remember was maintaining his quiet distance it seems, from this photo.

My dad went into the military around 1943, the war had been on for several years, the country was calling for more resources. He was around 29 at the time. Today that would seem old for someone to be entering the military. I often think about that when I look at this photo. I believe when this photo was taken he was preparing to leave for Italy.

It's a timeless type of photo. I wonder who took the photo, I was never told. It's one of millions of photos like it, but it's very unique to me.

Thanks dad.