14-150 Grand Picture of the day

[Snafu]

Information

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[Mark in Rochester]

Captured here in an iconic photograph of WWII, on September 15, 1944, are two Marines enjoying a brief respite from the constant battle. Gerald Churchby (later found out to be Thursby) and Douglas Lightheart are sitting in a shell hole, with the jungle of Peleliu shattered and broken all around them. That’s private Lightheart from Michigan, sitting holding the large machine gun in his lap, with a cigarette butt hanging from his mouth. The look in his eye is one of acute awareness, as if the enemy were about to attack at any second (which they probably were). Sitting to his right is private Churchby, seen holding his rifle with a far more casual and unconcerned look. Maybe he was just trying to smile for the picture?




Gerald Thursby

Last year, Jason McDonald, the webmaster for the World War II Multimedia database — http://www.worldwar2database.com — was researching the postwar lives of men and women shown in photographs.
McDonald said the photographer who shot the picture, H.H. Clements, died in 1969. In an effort to learn about Churchby, he contacted the Beacon Journal, which published a story about the mysterious Marine.
The story resulted in an important clue. In the last week of November, McDonald was contacted by Michael Conrad, who had found the name Gerald Thursby in an Ancestry.com website.
That tip led McDonald to an obituary of Thursby's wife, Cleo, who died in 2002. A search of the Beacon Journal's archives turned up an obituary for Gerald Thursby, who died in July 1999 of complications from pneumonia at the age of 78.
From there, a Beacon Journal reporter picked up the search and located Thursby's daughter, Becky Cardarella, of Afton, Minn., through her Facebook page. She confirmed that her father had been in the Marines and had fought on Peleliu Island and readily identified him in the photograph.



Marine Lt. Col. Ted McKeldin, who used the Thursby photo for the cover of his book, From the Horse's Mouth, Selected Thoughts on Small Unit Leadership, agreed with Cardarella that the caption should be changed.
McKeldin said it's likely ''Churchby'' never existed and was simply a mangled version of Thursby's name.
He said it's important there are accurate names and hometowns of those shown in historic WWII photos.
The photo of Thursby and Lightheart is ''one of the great photos of World War II and of Marine history,'' he said.
McKeldin said he met twice with Lightheart, who was wounded the day after the photo was taken and evacuated from the island.
Lightheart died in 2006.



While looking for the caption for the above image I found this one





A wounded marine awaits evacuation from Iwo Jima, in February, 1945.