William Franklin Boggs was born in Warsaw, Indiana, on July 25, 1914, just a few days before war began in Europe. He made a name for himself a generation later in his depictions of another war half a world away, this one in the Southwest Pacific.
Boggs was a young art student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts when he got the call to be a war correspondent during World War II. His job was to cover the Medical Corps in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. Reproductions of some of his paintings appear below.
Franklin Boggs was featured in the PBS documentary They Drew Fire (2000). By that time, he had taught at Beloit College in Wisconsin for several decades. He died in Beloit on November 7, 2009, just four days before Veterans Day. His life, then, was bracketed by war and punctuated by war.
On this day, we remember him and all of the men and women who have fought and died for our country and for the freedoms that we cherish. We also disavow and resist all of those who want to take away our freedoms, to tear down our country, and to destroy everything that America means and stands for. They should know that they will never and can never win, no matter what vaunted position they might hold.
Top to bottom:
[Men Loading Fuel Tanks on a P-38 Lightning.]
End of a Busy Day.
Battalion Aid Station.
Night Duty.
Text copyright 2021, 2024 Terence E. Hanley
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