[Stuart]

This gentleman was from my home town. I didn't know him well, but had talked with him several times. He had quite a military career.

His brother Pat (mentioned in the obit) was a career military man as well - he flew 100 missions in an F-84 during the Korean War, and went on later to fly both the U-2 in missions over Cuba and the SR-71 over Vietnam.

---

Many filmmakers have tried to recreate the chaos of World War II, but Walter Halloran captured the real thing through his camera lens.

Halloran rushed into heavy gunfire with his camera to document the first wave of soldiers storming Omaha Beach on D-Day, capturing some of the only surviving footage of that historic event. As a U.S. Army photographer, he would go on to film some of the most significant moments of the war — from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp.

The Chatfield native, who had been living in Edina, died in his sleep Oct. 18. He was 95.

Three years after graduating from high school, a 20-year-old Halloran jumped into the war on the beaches of Normandy armed with a 35mm camera, a pistol and two carrier pigeons strapped to his pack.

Like many soldiers that day, Halloran was seasick after a night floating on the English Channel due to a delay of the battle. And one of his pigeons drowned when he entered the water, limiting his ability to rush film back to England.

But Halloran pressed on into the German fusillade.

“Once on the beach, you could not stop! If you did, you were a beautiful target,” Halloran told Minnesota Monthly in 2014. “I turned around and faced the sea and I started to film guys coming in [while lying] on my belly.”

His shots from that day often appear in films about the war, partly because a duffel bag of film collected from other D-Day photographers was accidentally dropped in the English Channel. “ You’d like to be able to say, ‘Well get on the beach, turn around and start shooting film,’ ” said his brother Patrick Halloran. “But it wasn’t that simple. You had to survive.”

Halloran grew up on a farm in Chatfield, attending a one-room schoolhouse and later riding a horse 6 miles to high school. Seeking something bigger, Halloran hitched a ride with a relative to Los Angeles.

He soon landed an unlikely job shooting glamour photos of celebrities at Max Factor — a cosmetics company.

“I didn’t know what [Max Factor] was. I thought it was a factory and I came from a farm and I thought, ‘If it’s equipment, I can operate it,’ ” Halloran said in a recent interview with a British historian.

He then volunteered to be a photographer for the Army and, after being approved by a board that included Ronald Reagan, received training at nearby Hollywood studios.

The Army sent Halloran and his team to significant battles. He earned a Silver Star for saving a fellow soldier’s life at the Battle of Saint Lô . Later he would film the Battle of the Bulge and Americans crossing the Rhine River at the Battle of Remagen , a major **** defeat.

In 1945, Halloran’s commander ordered them to Weimar, Germany, where troops had come upon the Buchenwald concentration camp. Halloran remembered seeing piles of naked bodies on carts, intended for the crematorium.

“We were hardened by years of combat,” Halloran recalled in a 2007 Star Tribune article. “But nothing, nothing prepared us for the brutality — the sights, sounds and smells — we found there.”

Images of the war stayed with him.

“He was fighting the war up until his last night alive,” said his daughter Susan Halloran. “He would wake up and just say, ‘Oh my god I had another dream .’ ”

Halloran was awarded a Purple Heart and remained in the military after World War II, serving as an officer in the Korean and Vietnam wars. The French government recognized Halloran with the Legion of Honor medal in 2007.

He spent several decades in Rochester, working as a stockbroker and flying small airplanes in his spare time.

[Half-Inch Stud]

That was an interesting read. thanks

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Half-Inch Stud

That was an interesting read. thanks

X 2

[unruhjonny]

thanks for sharing this!

My paternal grandfather and his older brother were essentially forced to "volunteer" into the german army after teir town was liberated (yes, that word was intentional) from the russians - they lived in what became the Ukraine affer the war.
(Unfortunately the german army didn't make it there before my great grandfather, or his eldest son were executed by the communist russians just for being ethnically german.)

Both my 'Opa' and his brother have passed with few words about their service time.
I have understood that soldiers from both sides often chose to keep that part if their lives to themselves...

On a different note, I look forward to my weekly friday morning visit from a local (I work in a small town about a thrity minute drive south of the city I live in) who served in the Canadian army as an airplane mechanic;
He was stationed in southern Britian;
His principal job was servicing Lancaster four engine bombers for the RCAF.
He turned nintey-eight last march, and we spoke a bit this past week about how few WWII vets are still around...

My families were all on the "losing side", but I am glad it turned out the way it did, and am grateful to all WWII vets - the sacrifices that they, and their friends made so that we could live in a free democratic world...

[TimsTA]

Sad that many of these HEROES (although none of them would call themselves that)are passing everyday. They along with the Korean Vets are the ones lucky enough to make it home and help build the U.S. into they greatest country on earth!

[sdbob]

Thank you for the story. I cant even imagine all the other soldiers stories out there that should be told. May they all rest in peace.

[Keith Seymore]

Thank you for posting, Stuart.

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

My paternal grandfather and his older brother were essentially forced to "volunteer" into the german army after teir town was liberated (yes, that word was intentional) from the russians -

Same thing with one of the guys I worked with, only with his father.

When Rick tells the story he says his dad originally said "Nein!" but when they pointed their rifles at him he said "...let's see if we can find a uniform that fits, eh?"

K

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Thank you for posting, Stuart.

Same thing with one of the guys I worked with, only with his father.

When Rick tells the story he says his dad originally said "Nein!" but when they pointed their rifles at him he said "...let's see if we can find a uniform that fits, eh?"

K

that has an element of homour in it...

I was told that the head/mayor of their town took all the boys/men of eligable age into his house and basicly told them something to the effect of:
"The Germans are coming, you need to decide something right now;
You're either with us/them, or against us/them;
if you're with us, you need to volunteer."

[Johnny99]

I can never get over the fact that the great men who fought were really only kids. .

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Johnny99

I can never get over the fact that the great men who fought were really only kids. .

Holds true to this day.