The Lengthy Blue Line: Service Earlier than Self—the misplaced story of Fight Photographer Robert Sargent > United States Coast Guard > My Coast Guard News

During the assault landings, Robert F. Sargent, as official photographer, whereas beneath fireplace from enemy shore installations, carried out his assigned duties in a cool, clever and praiseworthy method, consistent with the very best custom of the U.S. Naval Service.

Commendation, Adm J.L. Hall, Jr., Commander Task Force 124, June 12, 1944

On the morning of June 6, 1944, Chief Photographers Mate (CPhoM) Robert F. (Bob) Sargent emerged from his below-deck bunk and, digital camera in hand, walked onto the pine timber planking of the Attack Transport USS Samuel  Chase (APA-26) simply off the coast of Normandy, France. Amongst a mixture of troopers, Coast Guardsmen, sailors, and battle correspondents, together with famed Life Magazine photographer Robert Capa, Sargent went about his assigned responsibility – documenting the invasion operations of the U.S. Coast Guard aboard his designated vessel. Much like earlier seaborne invasions, Sargent captured photographs on his PH-47 Graflex Speed Graphic digital camera on 4×5 Kodak movie. CPhoM Sargent later recounted: “When H-hour finally came I had a mixed feeling of pride and being downright scared. I had dreaded and looked forward to this moment for months.”

Of all the photographs, each shifting and nonetheless, taken by the myriad documentarians current for the landings, Sargent’s {photograph}, “Invaders Wading Ashore on D-Day,” later recaptioned “Taxis to Hell – and Back – Into the Jaws of Death” (usually shortened to “Into the Jaws of Death”) was rapidly developed and printed for distribution to inner sources in addition to stateside newspapers. June 8^th was the earliest a U.S.-based publication featured the Into the Jaws of Death picture; nonetheless, Sargent’s photograph was not the primary coast Guard D-Day {photograph} to succeed in American readers. Bob’s D-Day photographs had been crushed out by fellow Coastie photographer CPhoM S. Scott Wigle’s depiction of a convoy of invasion craft steaming in direction of the French coast within the early hours of June 6^th.

Following the top of the battle, Into the Jaws of Death turned greater than a wartime {photograph}; it rapidly morphed into the visible illustration of the June 6^th D-Day landings. Alongside Joe Rosenthal’s “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,” Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square,” and Robert Capa’s “Magnificent 11” collection from Normandy, Sargent’s “Into the Jaws of Death” shares uncommon air with an organization of images that, from uncertainty to triumph, symbolize a complete technology at battle.

Now, 82 years later, Sargent’s magnum opus has turn into ingrained into not solely the American, however the world-wide impression of D-Day. Given that the picture is within the public area and reproducible with out licensing points (not like Capa’s images), his iconic {photograph} has been used or portrayed in numerous books, magazines, posters, documentaries, video video games and have movies. Yet only a few photographs from his wartime portfolio have been extensively reproduced, not to mention correctly attributed to the lens and shutter of Robert Sargent. The reality is troublesome to disregard not like extra well-known photographers similar to Rosenthal, Eisenstaedt, and Capa, Sargent’s identify has turn into little greater than a footnote within the annals of World War II historical past. His photographs are sometimes credited merely to the U.S. Coast Guard – or, at instances, even mistakenly attributed to Capa himself.

 

Who was Bob Sargent?

Born in St. Charles, Illinois, and raised in Chatham, New Jersey, Bob Sargent developed an early ardour for pictures and seamanship. During his childhood, Sargent was a member of the Sea Scouts, a specialised department of the Boy Scouts of America targeted on maritime abilities; and he designed lighting and units for highschool performs in Chatham. Hand-selected by the Coast Guard for his work as a neighborhood New Jersey information photographer, Sargent went on to rise by means of the service ranks whereas documenting amphibious assaults on board the Chase throughout the battle.

Sargent’s photographic work, capturing a number of the battle’s most iconic and harrowing occasions, included the invasions of Sicily (July 1943), Salerno (September 1943), Normandy (June 1944), and Southern France (August 1944) alongside the Provence coast. After finishing his time on board the Chase in November of 1944, Sargent labored stateside at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. with public affairs missions to additional doc the Coast Guard’s contributions to the battle effort. With the battle nonetheless raging within the Pacific, he was referred to as upon as soon as extra to sail on board the USS Admiral H.T. Mayo (AP-125) to doc its operations. From April 1945 to October 1945, he sailed the Pacific capturing imagery because the Allies ready for the potential invasion of mainland Japan and later, Operation Magic Carpet returning American troops to the U.S. after the Japanese give up on September 2, 1945.

Known for his braveness beneath fireplace, Sargent carried cameras by means of bullets, shells, and stormy saltwater seas across the globe to protect an unflinching file of troopers and sailors in fight. While we are able to solely guess on the severity of his long-term psychological damage, Sargent’s solely identified bodily accidents had been to his shutter finger, for which he obtained VA incapacity, and his eyesight, which was dramatically lowered after his service. This is a primary look into a number of the exceptional photographs Sargent made whereas on board the Samuel Chase for Operation Avalanche, Neptune, and Dragoon.

 

Operation Avalanche

Invasion of Salerno – September 9-17, 1943

While aboard the Chase, Sargent sailed with the Southern Attack Force throughout Operation Avalanche, the Allied invasion of Salerno, Italy. The goal of the operation was to land Allied troops within the Gulf of Salerno, advance inland towards Naples, and safe a number of strategic Italian airfields. During the assault, the Chase served as a switch level, disembarking troops onto smaller touchdown craft sure for the seashores. In the opening waves of the invasion, Sargent’s project was to photograph doc all facets of operations to incorporate shore and shipboard operations. While photographing the offloading of provides from the Chase – together with vans, half-tracks, ammunition, rations, and engineering gear – Sargent and his seaside battalion topics got here beneath direct fireplace from the stomach of a German dive bomber that was unloading its personal provide of munitions to thwart the “enemy” advance beneath.

For the Coast Guard photograph No. 2000 captioned “Underneath Dropping Bombs,” Sargent obtained a quotation from the U.S. Navy Photographic Institute, signed by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal and famed photographer Captain Edward J. Steichen. The commendation praised his “exceptionally meritorious photography” and cited his means to behave with composure beneath fireplace with the {photograph} being cited as “one of the great human records of the war.” Captain Steichen headed the U.S. Navy’s Naval Aviation Photographic Unit – a bunch of photographers hand-selected to doc carrier-based Navy operations throughout World War II to buoy public morale.

 

Operation Overlord & Neptune

Invasion of Normandy – June 6, 1944

After refitting and extra assist operations within the Mediterranean, Chase sailed for England in preparation for Operation Overlord. The Chase was later assigned to the “Easy Red” sector of the Omaha beachhead to land amphibious assault troops as a part of Operation Neptune. Sargent was tasked with capturing the primary waves of American troops as they embarked and later disembarked LCVPs to assault the Normandy shoreline. Sargent was lowered away at 0536 hours in a LCVP and captured a number of photographs enroute to the seaside. Once the troops disembarked, he captured the picture “Into the Jaws of Death” and returned to the Chase. Sargent later recalled: “We were cold and soaked to the skin even before starting. The coxswain and crew were wonderful about everything. They only had one job in mind — unload the troops safely at the right time at the right place.” Upon his return, as he climbed aboard his ship, carrying his movie in a metallic milk can together with his moist, salt-stained cameras round his neck, Sargent is quoted as saying, “The coast of France this morning was certainly no photographer’s party”.

While again on the Chase, Sargent captured a number of different photographs, together with a collection of pictures of the Coast Guard manned Landing Craft, Infantry, LCI-85. The craft had sustained heavy injury throughout the assault on Omaha and was brough in beside the Chase to additional help with injury management efforts. From his vantage level, Sargent captured {photograph} No. 2344 as each ships labored tirelessly to evacuate the lifeless and wounded from the LCI earlier than it sank. In complete, the Chase launched 15 assault waves on Omaha Beach earlier than appearing as a middle for casualties for the remainder of the duty group after which returning to England on June 7^th.

 

Operation Dragoon

Invasion of Southern France – August 15-September 14, 1944

In early July, on the heels of the Normandy invasion, the Chase sailed a well-recognized course – again to heat Mediterranean waters to take part in Operation Dragoon. The objective of this operation was to open a second entrance within the southern area of France to additional the Allied advance throughout Europe. Sargent and the Chase returned to Naples, Italy to embark assault troops for the operation and took part within the assault on August 15^th exterior the Bay of Pampelonne. After finishing a number of provide voyages throughout the Mediterranean, the Chase sailed for Boston in late October, arriving on November 8^th. Bob had participated in and documented 4 amphibious assaults throughout the European Theatre, and now his time on board the transport was full. Following his return to the United States, Sargent accomplished a number of public affairs missions, together with a reunion and photograph alternative with a fellow Coast Guardsman from LCI-85, a touchdown craft he had photographed on D-Day.

 

Later Life and Legacy

After the battle, Sargent returned to civilian life close to his mother and father and siblings in northern New Jersey. He was welcomed again to work at Eastman’s – a stationery retailer the place he’d labored as a teen, whereas additionally taking pictures for the native paper – simply down the highway from his non permanent residence, a boarding home in Summit. Sargent headed the digital camera counter at Eastman’s for a few years, promoting photographic gear and processing movie and prints. During this era, he met and married Elizabeth “Lib” Ferry Sargent, a divorced mom of two boys, and within the late Nineteen Forties moved in with Lib and her youthful son, Jeremiah “Jerry” Poinier. Sargent’s older stepson, John Poinier Jr., lived individually together with his father and his father’s new household.

Sargent saved busy, working many hours at Eastman’s whereas maintaining with fixed modifications within the movie and digital camera industries. He was closely concerned within the native Chamber of Commerce and different civic teams – elevating funds for the Red Cross, working fishing derbies by means of the Rotary Club, and singing within the choir on the Presbyterian church. At house with Lib, he taught younger Jerry tips on how to fish, construct issues, and revel in a very good present tune. Sargent stuffed his days and nights with exercise, however like a lot of his army friends, didn’t usually discuss his extraordinary tour of responsibility and the psychological weight he carried.

Sadly, Sargent died by suicide on March 27, 1969, on the age of fifty, with no direct descendants. He is buried in Fair Mount Cemetery in Chatham, New Jersey, subsequent to his mother and father and sister and amongst fellow veterans of the Second World War representing each department of the army. Last November, on the invitation of a neighborhood veterans’ group, co-author Brennan traveled with Liza Poinier (certainly one of Sargent’s step-grandchildren) for a Veterans’ Day ceremony honoring “Hometown Heroes” with newly created banners devoted all through downtown Chatham Township. Bob’s banner, full with a portrait photograph in his Coast Guard gown uniform, proudly waves on a lightweight pole on a avenue within the downtown core of the Township.

Though his life resulted in tragedy, Sargent’s contributions to wartime photojournalism endure. Robert F. Sargent’s work, significantly his iconic D-Day “Into the Jaws of Death,” stays a strong visible testimony to the bravery and sacrifice of unusual males who fought in a unprecedented battle.

Through his digital camera lenses and images, Sargent’s dedicated to capturing the service and sacrifice of the amphibious engagements that tipped the scales of battle and led to Allied victory in World War II. As he later acknowledged:

 

My eyes had been glued to the boat coming in subsequent to ours, and on the water in between, boiling with bullets from hidden shore emplacements, like a mud-puddle in a hailstorm, it appeared unattainable that we’d make it with out being riddled. As I watched the following boat, it all of a sudden burst into flames and smoke. A white fog like smoke, and it titled crazily as troopers crowded to 1 aspect to get away from the flames.

 

Next time you see “Into the Jaws of Death,” take a second to think about Bob Sargent’s exceptional dedication and repair to our nation, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the world.