16-014 Garand Picture of the Day - Final Step of Jack W. Rose

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The Final Step of Jack W. Rose

“I was hiding behind a tree while Jack was shot. I had a gun in one hand and the camera in the other hand. I took this picture of him before he fell to the ground and never got up again.”-Tony Vaccaro

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Jack's parents were John Houston Rose and the former Adra Ginn.

Jack W. Rose was killed by sniper fire while serving with the 83rd Infantry Division in Ottre, Belgium.

World War II ended for Tony Vaccaro five months ago. That’s when he officially located his buddy, Jack Rose. Rose then a 23-year-old Private First Class, died in action at a crossroads in Belgium 61 years ago.
Vaccaro has never forgotten that scene. He couldn’t, because he is the one who took a photograph of his buddy’s dying moment, freezing it in time and in his memory.
For the past six decades, the photograph Vaccaro 84, took of Rose trying to cross that road on Jan.11, 1945 in Ottre Belgium, has haunted him. He snapped the frame with his 35 mm camera at the exact instant Rose was hit with German rifle fire. He died instantly.
Vaccaro, at the time an Army Private First Class as well, moved on with his outfit, Intelligence Platoon of the 2nd Battalion, 331st Regiment, 83rd Infantry “Ohio” Division. He did not discover until later what happened to Rose. He only new that he had been killed. “He was gone of course. When we came back through that area,” Vaccaro said.
Plagued by the memory and with the photograph that became one of the most sought after in the world, Vaccaro sought after his buddy in European and American Memorial as well as private cemeteries. He even phoned all the Rose families he could locate. It wasn’t until this past March that he learned of the Knox County Archives and Eric Head, 42, archives assistant, who had been contacted by Dan Klare of Cincinnati (Ohio).
Klare had phoned Vaccaro for information concerning missing soldiers he was trying to locate for WW II families. Klare wanted to know about possible photographs of missing-in-action soldiers who had never been found. That’s when Vaccaro told Klare about Jack Rose. He thought no more about the conversation, he said, until he received a phone call from Klare telling him to contact the Knox County Archives, a part of the Knox County Library system.
Vaccaro sent an e-mail to Head and learned that Jack Rose was buried in Mt. Olive Cemetery in Knox County and that Rose had a living brother, Bob, in Knoxville. “Then suddenly I felt an incredible relief,” says Vaccaro. “After 61 years, suddenly WW II came to an end. It was heavy to carry the memory of Jack Rose all these years. But I am so happy I will finally be meeting his brother. To me it is a revelation.

Knoxville is my hometown. Mt. Olive Cemetery is also the home of the first (and for many years the only) memorial to the victims of the Civil War Great Sultana Disaster, which had a loss of life greater than that of the Titanic. People wonder why Knoxville would have a memorial for Union soldiers lost in a maritime disaster south of Memphis. I had always wondered as well, and the article above jogged my memory. I did a search and after twenty years of research and finally found the link. The reason is that nearly one-quarter of the 1800 victims were soldiers of the Third Tennessee Cavalry who had just been repatriated from a Confederate POW camp and were returning to their home in Knoxville. The memorial was paid for by Third Cavalry soldiers who survived the disaster.

Attachment 68639
Click for a larger pic.

Bob