Ralph Morse was born in Manhattan in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] in October 1917. His father died during the flu epidemic. Morse became interested in photography during high school when he worked on the school newspaper. After graduation, he attended New York University [Annotator's Note: also referred to as NYU in New York, New York] and took all the photography courses they offered. Following graduation and much perseverance, he found a job. He worked for a firm that did social photography. It was similar to what Life magazine offered its readership. After several job transitions, he was given a few job assignments by Life. His work was approved and he was hired by Life for life. He covered the build-up to the war because he had multiple clearances by the military and other authorities. He was on a mission when the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] bombed Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He went back to the office and shortly thereafter was offered a job with the Navy. He was to be a chief petty officer working directly under the Secretary of the Navy. Instead, Morse took a job with Life as a war correspondent. He knew he would have more flexibility in covering the war if he was a civilian war correspondent rather than being tied down to military restrictions. He did instruct military personnel in camera work during the war.

Ralph Morse wanted to be at Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] for Christmas in 1942. He wanted to depict the troops during the holiday to the American public. He was on New Caledonia without any authority but managed to coax and convince enough of the right people to fly to Hickam Field then home to purchase new equipment. Military intelligence had observed his moves during that period. He returned to Pearl Harbor and planned to make his way to Guadalcanal aboard the Vincennes [Annotator's Note: USS Vincennes (CA-44)]. After leaving Pearl, an announcement was made that the ship was joining a task force with the objective of bombing Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan]. Morse took a photograph of Doolittle [Annotator's Note: then US Army Air Forces Colonel, later US Air Force General, James H. Doolittle] taking off the carrier. President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] held the picture from the press to protect the Shangri-La story [Annotator's Note: Roosevelt had indicated to the press that the bombers had flown from fictional Shangri-La to mask the fact that a carrier, the USS Hornet (CV-7), had launched Doolittle's bomber force.]. It was exciting for Morse. The mission was risky but successful.

Following the Doolittle Raid [Annotator's Note: named for its commander, then US Army Air Forces Colonel, later US Air Force General, James H. Doolittle] on Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan], Ralph Morse was aboard the heavy cruiser Northampton [Annotator's Note: USS Northampton (CA-26)] for the Battle of Midway. He had his meals with the junior officers including a Marine who challenged his mess mates to identify enemy planes or buy the whole group ice cream. Morse did so for 21 days until he finally got the planes down. During the battle, the enemy sought the carriers and the Northampton did not get into the heavy part of the battle. She fired her guns just a few times when enemy aircraft flew over. The ship was so far away from the main action that Morse was not satisfied with any of his photographs. The ship was mainly running anti-submarine patrol. After the Battle of Midway, Morse was assigned to the Vincennes [Annotator's Note: USS Vincennes (CA-44)]. The ship went to a staging area where Morse met with a Marine commander who gave him permission to land with the Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] invasion third wave. The Marines were excited about finally getting a chance to put their training to good use. After the airstrip was taken, Morse returned to the Vincennes to get more of his gear. The ship was later sunk off Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: in the early morning hours of 9 August 1942 during the Battle of Savo Island]. While Morse was talking to a gunnery officer on the ship during the battle, a shell took the officer and his gun position completely away. They all disappeared but Morse was not scratched. The order to abandon ship came. Morse was scared with the enemy shooting at them. At his age, he did not realize how dangerous everything was. He spent six hours in the water with others around him. The sharks did not bother them since there was so much shelling going on. Morse was tired when he was rescued. All his equipment went down with the ship. The loss included his photographs of the landings on Guadalcanal. Eventually, Morse made his way back to Guadalcanal for Christmas with the troops. There was Santa Claus in 105 degree weather. Morse went on patrols with the Army for four or five days. That was when he photographed a Japanese skull in the jungle. He was told it could be a trap so he had to snap his picture and run like hell. Following Guadalcanal, Morse contracted such bad malaria that the Navy sent him back to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] for treatment.

While Ralph Morse was in the hospital recovering from malaria, he was told he would not be going back to the Pacific [Annotator’s Note: he had survived the sinking of the USS Vincennes (CA-44) and spent time in the jungles of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands]. Instead, he would be covering Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] and the invasion of Europe. Patton wanted to save the lives of his troops by continually moving. The General recognized and respected Morse's work after his photograph was shown on the cover of Life magazine. Morse was given a difficult assignment to cover a wounded man from battlefield to recovery. Patton helped facilitate the necessary orders to accomplish the goal. Morse spent six weeks with a wounded man and completed the story. The individual had been wounded by a mortar round in both arms. It took several tries to get the right man. He was a stretcher bearer named George Lott [Annotator's Note: Private George Lott served as a medic in the 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division in one of the regiment's battalion aid stations]. Morse grew close to him. The wounded man had been a truck driver. One of his arms was lost and the other saved. Additionally, Morse was charged with developing a story about a war prisoner. He selected a French POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] who had made parts for jeeps for four years. That was the type of stories the war correspondents made that go down in history. His story on a blind soldier, Tony Lance, was also of that caliber. A war correspondent sees ten times more battles than a typical soldier. A correspondent is always being shot at and it is only "dumb luck" that he is not killed. Morse was with the wounded man during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945].

Ralph Morse was covering opening of schools in Aachen, Germany and based near Ike's [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] Headquarters. He shared a room with Bob Capa [Annotator's Note: Endre Friedmann, also known as Robert Capa, was a photographer for Life Magazine]. He captured the surrender of the Germans with Jodl [Annotator's Note: Chief of German Operations Staff Alfred Jodl] signing the document. He had to push a Russian general out of the way to frame his photograph. As a civilian, he took the picture for the whole world. The images were memorable. Morse's next major assignment was to cover Goering at Nuremburg [Annotator's Note: German Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring, or Goering, commanded the German Air Force and was second only to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi chain of command]. Everything Morse covered is in history books. His photographs are used in the telling of the stories. He took so many pictures during the war. His most beautiful is the French prisoner returning home on a cobblestone street. Camera equipment improved significantly since his first photographs of the Doolittle Raid [Annotator's Note: bombing attack on the Japanese mainland on 18 April 1942 carried out by 16 North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) and named for the raid's commander, then US Army Air Forces Colonel, later US Air Force General, James H. Doolittle]. His instincts have made his photographs better.

Ralph Morse covered medicine and all the important doctors after World War 2. He covered Broadway until the space program and became friends with John Glenn [Annotator's Note: John Herschel Glenn, Jr.; United States senator, US Marine Corps Colonel, and NASA astronaut]. He was assigned to the space program full time. He was given no restrictions to do what he thought was necessary for the proper coverage. Two astronauts showed up for his 95th birthday celebration. Scott Carpenter [Annotator's Note: Malcolm Scott Carpenter; United States Navy Commander and NASA astronaut] and Robert Crippen [Annotator's Note: Robert Laurel Crippen; United States Navy naval aviator and NASA astronaut] both showed up. There were seven initial astronauts who all wanted to orbit the earth first. Glenn and Carpenter were selected for the first and second missions. Morse covered Jackie Robinson [Annotator's Note: Jack Roosevelt Robinson; World War 2 Army veteran and the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era] as the first black player in professional major league baseball. He captured a unique picture of Robinson stealing home base during the World Series. Morse retired from covering the space program after the Challenger disaster [Annotator's Note: the space shuttle Challenger (OV-099) blew up shortly after take-off from the John F. Kennedy Space Center on 28 January 1986 killing all seven astronauts aboard]. Morse was there for the explosion. He was working for Time magazine. He captured a photograph of the shuttle prior to the explosion that indicated a fuel leak. His autographed photographs are highly prized and priced that way. He no longer takes photographs. He does not own a camera. His last professional picture was of John Glenn and STS-95 [Annotator's Note: a space shuttle mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 29 October 1998] taking off. The most dramatic picture he took was the lift-off of Apollo 11. Morse applied a lot of advanced camera work to accomplish it. It is important for young people to learn about history. World War 2 is part of that. The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] and other museums are important to help educate the youth. Morse prioritized the pictures he took and the career moves associated with that. He would admonish all future generations to never give up. Instead, talk your way in.