On July 8^th, 1944, three weeks into World War II’s Battle of Saipan, photographer W. Eugene Smith snapped what became an iconic photo of a US Marine, capturing the weariness and wariness of combat as few images have before or since. It was of Private First Class Thomas Ellis Underwood. Below are some interesting facts about the story – and unfortunate controversy – surrounding that iconic image.

Competing Claims

Often referred to as “The Saipan Stare”, W. Eugene Smith’s photo appeared in LIFE Magazine with the caption: “Surrounded by the enemy, with bullets whizzing from all directions, this Soldier jerked his head around as one bullet cracked uncomfortably close. He was about 100 feet from the front lines, on the day after the famous breakthrough on Saipan, and had been practically hand-driving Japs out of their pillboxes. More than 2,000 Japs were killed in the drive to the sea.”

Decades later, an unfortunate controversy erupted about just who was the warrior in the photo, when a Santa Fe bar owner claimed that it was his father, Angelo Klonis. The son believed that his father had been an operative with the Office of Strategic Service (OSS – the CIA’s predecessor), and that the photo had not been taken in Saipan, but was actually snapped in Europe, where his father had served during WWII. The claims were taken at face value for at first, but as seen below subsequent research debunked them.

Questionable Assertions

There is no evidence that Angelo Klonis had ever been an OSS operative. OSS personnel records from WWII have been declassified, and are available for public search through the National Archives. According to military records, Klonis was not an OSS operative, but a US Army cook. His unit’s baptism of fire occurred in France, two days after the iconic Life magazine photo was taken in Saipan. The records show that he left the United States on February 10^th, 1944, and arrived in England two weeks later on February 24^th. Klonis remained in Europe until November, 1945, when he was shipped back to the US. There is no record that he had ever served in Saipan or been in the Pacific Theater of Operations during WWII.

As to where the photo was taken, all the available evidence indicates that the photographer, W. Eugene Smith, had correctly labeled the image he shot for what it was: that of a Marine in Saipan. The man in the image has a Marine camouflage cover on his helmet. He is wearing Marine dungarees. His equipment is secured by Marine straps, not Army ones. Furthermore, photos before and after on the photographer’s contact sheet depict personnel with unit patches of the 1^st Battalion, 24^th Marines.

Thomas Ellis Underwood Was the Warrior in the Iconic Life Magazine Photo

Photos taken of Ellis that same day by another photographer, Stanley Troutman, seem to leave little doubt that he was the same man whose photo appeared in Life magazine. One of Troutman’s photos appeared in the Saint Petersburg Times on July 24^th, 1944. Titled “Thirsty Leatherneck”, it identifies its subject as local US Marine T.E. Underwood, in Saipan. The caption reads in relevant part: “Hot and weary after fighting on the western beaches below Saipan’s Mt. Marpi, Marine Pfc. T. Ellis Underwood, son of Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Underwood, 6229 Twenty-ninth street north, takes a long cool drink of water from his canteen”.

The final and perhaps most conclusive piece of evidence is W. Eugene Smith’s original caption for the Life magazine photo. It reads “T. E. Underwood, 24th Batt. St. Petersburg, FL”. There was a US Marine Private First Class Thomas Ellis Underwood from Saint Petersburg, Florida. He fought in Saipan, where he served as a squad leader with Company B, 1/24 Marines. He survived the Battle of Saipan and fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima a few months later. There, Thomas Ellis Underwood earned a Bronze and made the ultimate sacrifice, killed in action at age twenty two.

_________________

Some Sources & Further Reading

First Battalion, 24^th Marines – The Weary Warrior

History Halls – The Story Behind an Iconic Photo: Raising a Flag Over the Reichstag

Leatherneck Magazine, July 1921 – ‘I Never Had Any Idea It Would Get Home’: Ellis Underwood, Stanley Troutman, and the Legacy of a Split Second in Saipan