World War II Honoree

Emil David Edgren

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

San Francisco, California

Honored By

Pearl Thomas

Enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps at the age of 21. Served four and a half years as a photographer. He was first stationed in Iceland for 18 months and later was deployed to Europe where he served in several countries for the remainder of the war. He photographed many luminaries of the time, including General Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Queen Mother Elizabeth, and President Charles de Gaulle. The country of Belgium issued two postage stamps commemorating the Battle of the Bulge, each stamp bearing a stylized image of a soldier in combat on the front line of that battle, he snapped that memorable picture while crouched low in a trench between bursts of machine gun bullets flying over his head. He also captured post-war events such as the jubilant crowds celebrating in Paris on the afternoon of May 8, 1945 when the war in Europe was finally announced.