Newsletter #4

First Update in a while!

It has been months since I have sent an update on the status of the project and for that I must apologize! Despite the lack of emails, an enormous amount of work has been going on behind the scenes.

The Pacific!

First and foremost I have been planning the first trip to the Pacific Theater to document the battlefields, memorials prison camps and important locations just as was done nearly six years ago in 2018. The trip will begin in just three days on Friday April, 19th! This is an enormous step forward toward the conclusion of this project and eventual book publishing.

What else has been accomplished in the last six months?

In October the project made a trip to Montreal for an incredible visit with four Holocaust Survivors mere days after hostilities broke out between Hamas and Israel. The next day, something I’d never thought would be possible I was able to meet and make a portrait with four Soviet survivors from the German Occupation as well as two veterans who served for the army.

Just a week later 8 more incredible veterans were added to the project thanks to Andy Biggio’s “The Rifle 2” book signing event in Massachusetts. Straight from the Rifle event, with my friends 84th Inf. Div. veteran David Marshall and historian Paul Oechsner we headed to Pennsylvania and New Jersey to meet Stan Friday and Tim Kinery!

The very next weekend we were off to Kingston, NY thanks to Bob Willis and the “God and Country” event to document the stories of two more Holocaust Survivors, a veteran of the Philippines campaign and a Dutch Civilian survivor.

No rest for the weary as I was off to New Mexico & Arizona to document the some of the last surviving veterans of the Navajo Code Talkers, Battle of Bataan of 1942 and a women of the 6888 postal battalion! Then in February I could not have been more fortunate to run into pilot Joe Peterburs who fought in four wars for the US Air Force!

The trip to the Philippines and Marinas!

For the last six months, the trip to the Pacific Theater has been being planned extensively. The European Theater seems to get significantly more attention both in our studies, documentaries and movies. About 25% of the veterans who have participated in this project served in the Pacific Theater and it is essential that that campaign is documented and memorialized on the pages of this book.

I will be taking off this Friday for Manila on a two week photographic journey to the Philippines including Leyte, Luzon, Bataan and Corregidor. The trip will also include side trips to Saipan and Guam to document the important battlefields and memorials located on those islands. This is the first step toward the finish line of this book and we thank everyone who has supported me along this journey.

The re-capture of the Philippines held both strategic and political importance. The capture of Saipan and Tinian in the Marinas provided the Air Corps an airfield within a closer striking distance of Japan for air raids on the island.

The Necessary War has a GoFundMe Page

As I mentioned in the previous newsletter or to those who have had their email added in the last few months I have GoFundMe page. If you are comfortable donating by other means such as Venmo or check, so that fees aren’t taken out, please contact me directly. The goal right now is $60,000. I have received approximately $2,500 privately toward the project and I can’t thank those generous donors enough for their help! The amount has been changed as I feel this will be enough to push the project over the edge in it’s mission to document both the European and Pacific battlefields and meet with a few more veterans and Holocaust Survivors. An incredible amount of funds has been spent out of my own pocket traveling across North America and the World to document these amazing men and women who both served and survived. An incredible amount of money has been spent traveling the world to photograph essential locations that tell the stories of World War II and the Holocaust.

The funding has never been more necessary as I embark on this trip to the Philippines, Guam and Saipan. Future trips have to be planned and funded as well to document Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Your funding is essential to completing the project. Your donations will be used to purchase airfare, accommodations, travel such as car, train and ferry costs and guides in places like Iwo Jima, Pearl Harbor, and the Philippines. In Europe, the project still needs to document concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen (where Anne Frank perished), Buchenwald, Stutthof, Treblinka and Mauthausen. The Italian front including the two cemeteries, Anzio, Monte-Cassino, and the Gothic line should be included. Please help by donating whatever you can. No donation is too small or too large. Please include your name with your donation so that you can be listed inside the book as a supporter. Additional information about the fundraiser can be found on the GoFundMe page. More importantly, if you are willing, please share this fundraiser link on your social media pages and with friends and family. This project needs all the support it can get financially so that we can teach countless generations to come about the sacrifice and heroics by our veterans and survivors and the real price of Freedom!

A Veteran Story

Yeoman on LST 461

In honor of the trip to the Philippines and Saipan, I would like to share the story of one of the first veterans who ever sat for a portrait for me and happen to serve off the coast of both of these places! Robert Marquardt was drafted after of HS and served in the Navy during World War II on an LST (Landing Ship, Tank) in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Bob was born in Brooklyn, raised in Ridgewood, Queens and later moved to Long Island after the war. He served as a Yeoman on LST 461. LST’s were to support amphibious operations by carrying tanks, vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto shore.
The LST had a nerve-wracking moment soon after leaving the states bound for a stop in Pearl Harbor. After departing, a small, unknown ship was detected on the radar. The crew watched it go from the starboard side & to the aft until it diapered. The ship was a Japanese sub but did not fire upon the LST because its mission was simply reconnaissance. Bob and LST 461 took part in the capture and occupation of Saipan and Tinian in June 1944, the Leyte operation; Lingayen Gulf landings 1945; and the assault and occupation of Okinawa in May 1945. Bob received a combat medal for his service on Okinawa. On August 6th, 1945 Bob remembers being stationed in the sea around Tinian and seeing the “Enola Gay” take off and land. He was not aware at the time of the planes importance but later learned of its significance. The plane dropped the first ever atomic bomb over Hiroshima.
After the surrender of Japan, LST 461 took part in humanitarian missions bringing supplies and help to many war-torn areas of the Pacific. Bob spent a lot of time in Shanghai and on the Yellow Sea in China helping civilians in these suffering areas. Many years later, Bob Marquardt found out that he had been awarded the “China Service Medal” for his humanitarian work.
My favorite story Bob shared was after the Japanese surrender, when his ship was stationed in Korea and they were docked near a vessel still occupied by the Japanese Navy. “I got up early one morning, and went to the bow of the ship, and I see them all coming out, and this was before daybreak, and I wish I had a picture of this, when the sun came up over the side, the entire crew, they all bowed to the sun… What a sight!”

How can you help:

Please support this project. It is more important than ever to teach the history of World War II and the Holocaust.

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