World War II Honoree

Charles P. Gorry

Hometown

Washington, District Of Columbia

Honored By

Pearl Thomas

He was a news photographer who covered the war in the Pacific, spending 60 days on the front at Okinawa and scaling the slopes of Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima while the fighting raged. He was aboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid when Japanese suicide planes struck the flight deck. For his efforts in fighting fires and rescuing the wounded, he was awarded the Bronze Star by the Navy. He was the only photographer to witness an attempted suicide by Prime Minister Hideki Tojo of Japan in September 1945, and took a photo that became indelibly etched on the minds of newspaper readers throughout the world.