Nick Del Calzo, in July of 2014, contacted myself and almost 20 other photographers to help him complete his latest book. He is the photographer of several portrait books including Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty and The Triumphant Spirit: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors…Their Messages of Hope & Compassion.
Cmdr. Phil Kirkwood
Col. PJ Dahl
In this volume, he honors another essential part of our military history, America’s fighter aces. There was a slight problem though, some of our nation’s heroes had passed away before they could be contacted about participating. Nick’s solution was to reach out to professional image makers across the US to negotiate each assignment.
I received my copy of the book of around 85 portraits over the weekend just in time to share it wth you on this Veteran’s Day 2016.
I am honored to have been asked and proud to have eight images in the book. We worked with Nick’s assistant in Denver, Amanda Campbell, at the outset. Then Florida-based organizer, Gregg Wagner, helped arrange the timing and locations for the portraits. In each case, Gregg would accompany my assistant, Rick Carter, and myself to the sessions. As we met each of the former pilots, we were graciously welcomed into their homes. We set up a simple roll of black seamless paper for a background, a few lights, and then the talking began. It was a pleasure to have Gregg there for his powers of recall would often fill the cracks in my military knowledge. Each of the men were so humble. They spent as much time with us as we needed. Because of this, the portraits have a feeling of comfort, with the honor and respect that these men deserve.
Peter Collier crafted the stories that accompany each image. His writing brought back the rollercoaster of emotions I felt while trying to keep my composure during our encounters. The tears that USAF Major Charles Hauver shed while being photographed came back to me as I read his story. He shared the thrill of achieving his Ace status but also the agony of knowing on that Christmas Day, as he celebrated victory, some parent had lost their son. Reflecting back, this is what got me about this project: it wasn’t supposed to affect me. It did. Only in speaking directly with these gentle men, could you see in addition to hear how truly unpretentious they are. It seemed none of them were happy about taking another pilot’s life. Each of them had to come to their own personal understanding of the sacrifice involved in the life and death struggles of war. In each man, there was pride, honor, dignity, & respect, but I left feeling they didn’t think any better of themselves than any other soldier. They signed up or were drafted to do a job. They went and did the best they possibly could given the circumstances. And these brave individuals, often flying alone in their aircraft, went just a little farther, a little faster, and flew a little better to become Aces with Wings of Valor.
