Somewhere in South Korea, Aug. 18, 1950: Members of the 25th Infantry Division in South Korea take a break to eat some South Korean melons. One of the infantrymen dons a traditional South Korean “gat.”

The image was taken by photographer Thomas Nebbia, a combat photographer during the Korean War. In later interviews Nebbia admitted that he enlisted in the U.S. Army in an attempt to forego a wartime draft call up which he feared would put him in the trenches. Although one could argue that a combat photographer MO puts you smack in the middle of battle, Nebbia said he was convinced that trading a gun for a camera saved his life.

Nebbia would go on to become a celebrated National Geographic magazine photographer. He worked for the magazine from 1959 to 1985.

Although Stars and Stripes prioritizes the digitization of images taken by Stars and Stripes photographers (Nebbia did not photograph for Stripes, although his images did feature in the paper occasionally), Stripes’ archivist made an exception for the images taken during the Korean War by U.S. combat photographers due to their rarity and historic value.

While we do not have the negatives of these images, our archives do hold photo prints — prints made at the time of publication of photos to be featured in the paper. Housed in Pacific Stars and Stripes’ archives and now fragile due to their old age, Stripes’ archives team works to preserve these moments in history.

October is Archives Month, so keep your eye out for more treasures from the Stars and Stripes Archives on the Archive Photo of the Day pages. Have a question for our archivist? Submit it here! https://www.stripes.com/contact/archives/