Walter Halloran was born on 25 August 1923 in Chatfield, Minnesota. Growing up on his family’s farm was extremely pleasant. Although they were short of money, everyone was poor so the family did not realize their condition. There was plenty to eat so they did not suffer. The youngsters enjoyed playing with the farm horses. The youngsters all had jobs to do on the farm. They worked on general farming tasks and kept busy. They did not have time to participate in school athletics as a result. It was no problem though. The Great Depression did not affect the children much because their needs were taken care of. The parents would discuss financial issues between themselves at times. The children walked to their one room school house every day. Teachers were very young and barely out of high school. There were school ball games and picnics. It was a good experience. High school was different since they had to go further to their school. Halloran rode a horse to and from school. He woke up early to prepare the horse and then eat a bowl of soup or oatmeal before leaving. He rode with two or three others to school. Because of the urgency of working on the farm after school, the children did not participate in any school athletics. The family talked more about the war with Germany rather than that in the Far East. There was no television so news they received was old news. There was concern about the draft status of the young boys. Halloran was in Hollywood, California with friends when he heard of Pearl Harbor. He was seeking work and managed to get a job quickly at a Max Factor Studio as an apprentice photographer. The attack on Pearl Harbor was exciting even though few knew where the site was located. Interest became acute after the attack details were learned. Halloran decided to leave the family farm because of the difficult times of the Depression. The older children had to move on to other work because the farm would not support that many mouths to feed. Upon entering California, he was hired as an apprentice photographer which was basically a gopher. He participated in photographing many of the popular stars of the day. That was his first contact with Hollywood people. It was exciting. Just two weeks before, he had been driving a tractor and now he was in a glamorous position. He knew the attack on Pearl Harbor would affect him after he heard President Roosevelt’s speech [Annotator’s Note: on 8 December 1941, one day after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that Congress declare was on the Empire of Japan. It did so by a nearly unanimous vote of approval.]. People were enthusiastic. Many men were volunteering for service. Halloran joined up to enter the Photographic Corps.

Walter Halloran had never thought about joining the military until the attack on Pearl Harbor. He knew no one who had been in the service prior to that. The Army sent a group of officers throughout the country recruiting photographers to join the Photographic Corps. Halloran was interviewed in Hollywood and told to standby for a subsequent acceptance interview. When he returned for the follow-up interview, there was a panel which included Ronald Reagan. Reagan had been selected as a liaison between the Army and the Hollywood studios. It was a fortuitous selection. Reagan was a good man. He asked reasonable questions of the interviewees. Questions pertained to why the candidate wanted to go into the service. That was somewhat obvious since Pearl Harbor had been attacked. Other questions dealt with the technicalities of photography and the candidates’ various experiences in the field. Reagan developed a plan and training program to incorporate the 50 accepted individuals into the Army Photography Corps. He arranged for each man to get on-the-job training in the multiple studios. Halloran was assigned to Paramount Studio to work on the current movies being filmed. The instructors were the giants of the industry. They contributed their services for free. Halloran saw Bud Abbott and Lou Costello as well as Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope along with Bing Crosby. The latter three were starring in The Road to Zanzibar. They were all so helpful. Dorothy Lamour was not only beautiful but very nice. She tried to help as much as she could. Bing Crosby was more to himself. Bob Hope was very involved and tried to provide camera angle details. After that training, Halloran was sworn into the Army. Prior to Halloran’s induction, the Max Factor Studio was covering his salary. After induction and receipt of his uniform, Halloran was sent to San Antonio for basic training. People like Ronald Reagan were smart and good to work with because they knew their business and were helpful. Costello would offer advice on camera angles and that was helpful. Some of the Hollywood trainees were assigned to press photographers and participated in coverage of crimes and other news stories. That taught a quickness and attention to detail that would benefit them later. Debriefs with the press photographers afterward were helpful. Rationing had set in by this time. It was difficult to get new tires or gasoline if one had a car. Basic training was alright because Halloran was young and accepted what he was told. He had no bad reaction to it or the men he was associated with during that time. He garnered the nickname “Skippy” during basic. He was the youngest and smallest man in the group so he got the name and it has stuck through the years. Those were good days, but it was satisfying to complete basic training. It was good to accomplish that and get the new photographic equipment and start to use it. He was assigned to a small team to go to the Western United States. It came as a surprise when he was assigned to the last Negro cavalry division in the United States Army. The black troops were on the Texas border. Halloran had never talked to a black man before. He was issued a horse and modified equipment to carry the cameras and the tripod. He took many pictures along the Rio Grande. He met many seasoned master sergeants who were wonderful people. Halloran’s next location was out to Colorado Springs where ski troops with the 10th Mountain Division were training for possible deployment to Norway. He was issued skis to zip up and down Camp Hale taking pictures of the ski troops in Colorado. He could not carry a tripod so all the photographs were hand-held.

Walter Halloran went to the area of North Carolina where he participated in the largest maneuvers ever held by the United States Army [Annotator’s Note: a prior large scale training maneuver had been held in Louisiana in latter 1941.]. He was transferred to England afterward. With the Army short of mid-level officers, a decision was made to promote senior platoon and master sergeants into officer positions. A photographer was assigned to each of the new officers. Riding with the seasoned field commissioned officer, Halloran learned more than he could have otherwise. Various tasks such as bridge building were to be recorded so that Washington could learn from the efforts in the field during the maneuvers. Anything from field dentistry to chow preparation for 600 men in the field were recorded for better understanding of things to improve. Halloran would even get down into a machine gun position to record how an acceptable emplacement is established. All the while, Halloran was learning how to do things the right way from the seasoned newly minted officer he was working with. He had made the transition from the farm to Hollywood to the Army. He was in Camp Polk in Louisiana as part of that large maneuver assignment prior to going overseas. The men hoped they would go to the European Theater rather than in Asia. He felt the comfort level would be better in Europe with those people rather than with the Asians. Orders came and he was off to England.

Walter Halloran landed in a small English town with his company and their equipment in preparation for the invasion [Annotator’s Note: the Normandy D-Day invasion]. The company was broken up into three man teams and Halloran was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division. He joined up with the division and stayed with them prior to boarding the ships. Halloran carried a heavy 35mm Eyemo motion picture camera [Annotator’s Note: Bell and Howell manufacturer]. It was a good camera but not for purposes it was being used by the military. It required exposed hand threading of film which was impossible in the field. The Germans had a much better camera with their 16mm. Halloran wore three or four of the Eyemos out by the end of the war. Bell and Howell made a 16mm camera with cassettes that snapped on and off. That would have been a far better solution than the heavy and vulnerable Eyemo. The Russians used our equipment because it was Lend-Lease to them. The Germans and the French used 16mm cameras. During the Battle of the Bulge, the film would snap and break during the cold snowstorms. [Annotator’s Note: Halloran discusses details of the pros and cons of various cameras used in the war.] The Eyemo did the job but it was fragile. The 35mm still cameras were referred to as Candid Cameras. They were inexpensive and made by Eastman Kodak. They were carried by the photographer in case a target of opportunity arose. The Army called on civilians to donate their 35mm cameras to the war effort. The public responded. Halloran received a Leica camera as a result. That was an expensive camera that only wealthy people could afford. Halloran wrote a letter of appreciation to the couple who donated the Leica. He carried it for the rest of the war until the end when some Russians got a hold of it and stole it. During the training with the motion picture camera, the conditions were better than combat so there was no warning about how difficult it would be to operate. There was a good camera repairman behind the lines. The same was true of the jeeps. Halloran would go through three jeeps during the course of the war. Leading up to the invasion, the people of England were very friendly and cooperative. There were visits and picnics with only a few problems. Sometimes there were problems over a British girl. Prior to shoving off for the invasion, Halloran was too young to understand the magnitude of the endeavor. The night before the invasion, ships were being loaded. D-Day was originally to be 5 June not 6 June 1944, but storms came in and delayed the start by one day. The turbulence of the English Channel for that extra day made the men almost incapacitated. They had been sick and vomiting. It was a mess on the ships. The men were weak. It was tough.

Walter Halloran hit the beach and saw many men die as soon as the ramp was dropped [Annotator’s Note: he was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division which assaulted Omaha Beach on D-Day on 6 June 1944.]. The Germans trained their machine guns on the ramp and worked back and forth like a garden hose. The men had been told not to rescue or stop to aid anyone because if they did a lot of people would be jammed up. The Germans would train their weapons on that group as a result of the bunching. As he proceeded, he had to push aside or step on people to make it to the beach. It is similar to Private Ryan in the opening sequence [Annotator’s Note: the motion picture Saving Private Ryan graphically depicts the bloody assault on Omaha Beach by a platoon of the 5th Ranger Battalion.]. Halloran ran as fast as he could. He dropped into a hole in the water and got wet. He found a bit of protection at the shoreline. He had been carrying two carrier pigeons on his back pack. They were to carry exposed film back to England. When he reached the shore, he discovered that one pigeon had been drowned. The men were loaded down with back packs and guns. Halloran had 1000 feet of motion picture film. It was heavy. His camera was wrapped in plastic and had a wrist strap. His most vivid memory is running as hard as he could to find protection. His assignment was merely to film the best subjects he encountered. One scene he shot is a very famous and often used piece of footage which shows four soldiers marching toward the camera and the man on the left was shot and killed. It was his first shot from the beach. He took it while he was prone on the beach. He knew that the camera was working as a result. No one shot particularly stands out in Halloran’s mind. Rather than remembering fear, he recollects being seasick as the strongest memory. He was sick, weak and filthy from top to bottom. His strongest impression was to get off the boat as quick as he could. There was a lot of chaos on the beach. Medics were attempting to help the wounded. Many dead were on the beach. There were men yelling in the water and the confusion was extensive. Halloran was a member of a three man team, but his driver was on a subsequent boat that made it to shore. The driver brought the jeep with team’s equipment including their guns and ammunition. The end of 6 June found the men in an apple orchard. They felt secure in that orchard. They put up their tents. Heavy artillery fired all night, but they still felt a sense of satisfaction at having survived to that point. While on the beach, there was complete chaos. The sense of order was accomplished by Navy officers called beach masters. They directed Higgins Boats in and out. People were trying to find their units. It was just confusion. Halloran’s first film shots were toward the Channel at the four men approaching him. One fell over at that time. He moved further inland where the sand was higher. He had to get away from the beach because that was where the enemy was aiming. It did not bother him that he could not stop to help others. As a reference to his feelings, go see Saving Private Ryan. He spotted a Navy officer on a Higgins Boat who shouted at the passengers for them to get off and not block the others. Men in the water were asking for help. It was a lot to put on a teenager.

Walter Halloran spent his first night in France in an apple orchard [Annotator’s Note: Halloran had landed that morning with the 1st Infantry Division on Omaha Beach on D-Day 6 June 1944.]. He slept relatively well. He was grateful to be alive. Day by day recollections of period events are not possible. Reconnecting with his jeep and driver was a big event [Annotator’s Note: he was able to round out his three man photographic team with their transportation, equipment and weapons.]. The role of the cameramen was to follow the infantry and capture the action as it occurred. When the troops got off the tanks to advance on an objective, Halloran and his colleague would leave the jeep behind with the driver and follow the soldiers. After his footage was expended, Halloran would return to the jeep. There was not too much night work because of equipment limitations. The process through the remainder of the war was to report to the assigned outfit and get squared away with any final instructions or limitations and then go about filming the action alongside the combatants. After the film was consumed, the photographers would return to the base for packaging of the film for shipment to London and processing. They would grab some chow and then go back into battle again. Initially assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, the teams was later rotated between any of five different divisions. It was dependant on the priority of upcoming efforts and the orders emanating from commanding officers. There was constant movement from one division to another. Always a part of the basic Signal Photographic Company, Halloran would not only be attached to different divisions but on occasion find himself in a position of having to pick up a gun to fire on the enemy. That was particularly the case if more firepower was needed or if he had run out of film or the camera had malfunctioned or gotten worn out. The camera repairman was busy at all times. The first vicious fight that Halloran became involved in was at a critical junction at St. Lo. They walked right into a battle with close in shooting. He was in the heart of the city fighting house to house and room to room. Germans were running all over. When a German came around the corner and shot at the Americans, Halloran followed him and shot him. He retrieved some important papers off the enemy soldier. The camera was not working properly so the photographers returned to the jeep for new equipment. A decision was made to attack St. Lo again that night. Halloran decided to take part in the action. While near a wall in a cemetery, there was incoming enemy fire. An American major jumped into the hole with Halloran. Mortars commenced to bombard them. After the firing ceased, Halloran noted that the major was hit. He carried him to the jeep and then back to an aid station for treatment. The triage doctor there looked at the major and said he could not waste time with him. Halloran screamed at the physician that the wounded officer was not dead. He was alive. Years later while Halloran was working in the Pentagon, he suddenly felt a weird feeling and noticed a general at the door of his office. It was that major who had survived the serious wounds and was eventually promoted to general. He had gone about to find Halloran. It was a nice experience. The general said he was going out to Fort Huachuca, Arizona as the commanding general. He invited Halloran to visit him if he ever made it there. When Halloran did so, the general took him to his home to introduce him to his wife. She was so grateful for Halloran saving her husband’s life. She cried and hugged Halloran. Later, Halloran tried to visit the officer again, but time had taken a toll. The general was no longer able to initially recognize his rescuer until the officer’s wife pointed out that Halloran was the man who saved him in combat. At that point, tears formed in the general’s eyes. It is amazing what one will do in combat. The rescue and subsequent reunions were very rewarding experiences for Halloran.

Walter Halloran was often in combat. During the Battle of the Bulge, he was with an outfit trying to recapture a town near Bastogne. He put a telephoto lens on his camera to better capture the action. There was no tripod available so he was leaning up against a tree with the long lens protruding through the brush. Halloran heard a snap and told another soldier about it. The other man told him that it was a sniper bullet. That bullet had come very close to his head, and yet it missed him. The sonic boom snap was noise from it being so close to his ear. The sniper may have seen the glare of the camera lens and taken a shot at Halloran as a result. He could almost feel the closeness of the bullet. Halloran was skeptical about surviving the war. He was in too much combat. In doing research on the 165th Signal Photographic Company, Halloran found that it received more decorations as well as casualties than any other photographic group in the Army. People do not realize what being a combat cameraman entails. The combat movies that are seen had to be filmed by a cameraman who was embedded in with the fighting troops. Most people do not realize that. Two of Halloran’s teammates were killed during the war. One, in particular, was a country fellow from the Ozarks who was an excellent driver. He was very proud of being a high school graduate. They were standing next to each other when he was killed by a piece of shrapnel. He did not make it home. Halloran was close to him and yet did not even get dust on himself.

Walter Halloran fought in the Battle of the Bulge after making his way across France and participating in many small skirmishes [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of the Bulge was the last great German offensive. It occurred from 16 December 1944 to the end of January 1945 in the region of France, Belgium and Luxembourg adjacent to the Ardennes Forest and Germany.]. The weather was horrible during the fighting around Bastogne. Casualties were high. Cameras failed with the harsh weather. Clothing was not proper for the climate. There was no insulation for the boots and frostbite ensued. Halloran was at the famous bridge at Remagen [Annotator’s Note: the Ludendorff Bridge across the Rhine River was intact because the Nazis failed to destroy it. Vast numbers of American troops crossed the bridge and entered Germany in March 1945 before the span collapsed.]. He and his still man [Annotator’s Note: Halloran worked as a member of a two man team with the second man required to shoot still photographs. Halloran filmed motion pictures and took still shots as well.] entered Remagen and climbed a church steeple to get a better vantage point. They were careless and did not realize that they would become targets for the Germans after they were spotted with their binoculars. It was a bad move and they evacuated the elevated position before it was too late. There were constant confrontations all along the way with the next major event being the unbelievable situation at Buchenwald concentration camp [Annotator’s Note: a Nazi camp near Weimar, Germany]. Halloran does not like to speak about the incomprehensible situation in the camp. He took pictures of the prisoners in the camp. He took one picture of an individual who was face to face with him when the inmate came to the realization that he was going home. Ironically, the freed man slid to the ground and clasped his hands in gratitude and then died. Halloran saw the stacked bodies, crematory ovens, and other cruelties that involved sights, sounds and smells. Those events were forever embedded in his mind. He saw people who had survived the ordeals and were in a state of shock that their struggles were finally over. The captured Nazi guards were still arrogant and showed their disdain for the prisoners. There was no experience in Halloran’s three wars to compare with what he saw in the concentration camp. Prior to entry into the camp, he had no idea what faced him. He was merely headed to Weimar when an American policeman on a motorcycle told him to head back toward the camp. American troops were already entering the camp. It made him physically sick. The smell was from the dirty human beings as well as the death and decomposition of the piles of bodies. It was indescribable. Leaving there, he wanted to wash the smell off. The humans were exhausted but they showed that finally the situation was over. It was a terrible thing to experience. The photographic team of young men could not comprehend how people could do that to other people. They felt more anger toward the Germans rather than compassion for the inmates. The Germans gave no appearance of regret. They were just dealing with the swine—Jews. Their goal was to reduce the population. Halloran does not like the Germans even today. Upon landing in Normandy, he did not hate the Germans, but as he progressed across Europe and saw more atrocities, he began to dislike them more and more. During the final days of the war, a town was captured where many Americans were massacred. The emotions were high there. Many of the enemy were captured and held in a barbed wire enclosure. Halloran spotted a German major who was in the compound. The officer was a highly attractive individual with great composure and a fine uniform and boots. Halloran got permission to enter the compound to film the haughty enemy officer reduced to prisoner status. The military police advised him to be careful. Halloran entered and shot some film with his movie camera. The captive spat in Halloran’s face and Halloran reacted by shooting the arrogant officer. The compound guard quickly got Halloran to exit the enclosure before the enemy prisoners jumped him. Emotions were really on edge after what had happened at Malmedy when the Germans lined up American prisoners and shot them [Annotator’s Note: German SS troops massacred unarmed American captives during the Battle of the Bulge at a crossroads near Malmedy, Belgium.]. Halloran hates the Germans even though he has bought several of their automobiles. Halloran filmed the action of the war until combat ended. The enemy society collapsed and it became obvious that the Allies would win the war. All the belligerents had combat cameramen.

Walter Halloran would carefully pick his spots as he advanced in enemy territory. He would try to keep trees and brush as shelter when he was going into combat to film the action. If a wide open area had to be traversed, he went across it hoping that he would not get hit. Just as the infantryman he accompanied, he would find a protected spot to run to and then locate another one to advance to next and so on moving forward. Halloran became a prisoner of war—POW when he was captured by a German tank column. He had been traveling in a jeep toward a town that was about to be captured when this occurred. The Germans took the weapons from the Americans and drove them to Carlsbad in Czechoslovakia where they were interred. At the point of capture, there was little hostility shown by the enemy. The captives were not abused much. There was some banging around but not much. There was just enough to anger the Americans a bit. The POWs were turned over to local military authorities in Carlsbad. Halloran was a staff sergeant at this time. The next morning, he was taken into a German colonel’s office for interrogation. The enemy officer was a former American citizen who spoke perfect English with a Brooklyn, New York accent. He had returned to Germany to serve his original country of birth. He was an American citizen who was serving his land of birth. He felt he had made a mistake. He was following an old German tradition that the son always served in the German Army. His parents supported his decision. He had a dual citizenship. He was fluent in English so he worked with POWs. The colonel was a perfect gentleman. Halloran told his fellow POWs that they would survive the war with the colonel in command. The German officer came by to say goodbye to the POWs. He told them that he had a real problem. He knew that he would be executed for betraying his American citizenship if he returned to the United States, but if he stayed where he was, the Russians would capture and execute him for all that was done in the Soviet Union by the Nazis. The colonel felt he was a dead man no matter what. Halloran comment on this was “stupid Germans.” Halloran was liberated by the Russians who reached the town first. It was a joyful experience. Prior to liberation, there was a full assault by the Russians with heavy bombardment and artillery fire. The Russians did shoot every German guard in the camp as the colonel had predicted. Halloran saw the Soviet Army as being physically dirty after their difficult fighting all across Eastern Europe. Many of the female Soviet combatants were used as traffic directors. The photographic equipment and jeep confiscated by the Nazis was subsequently taken by the Soviets [Annotator’s Note: Halloran had a fine Leica still camera that he was particularly fond of that never got back to him as a result of the Soviets taking the American equipment after liberation of the POW camp.]. There were several 100 foot rolls of exposed film as well as weapons and other equipment that were never returned to the Americans.

Filming Combat

Walter Halloran was excited to see the Russians arriving to liberate his and his fellow prisoners of war. The Soviets were fascinating to watch. Few spoke English unlike the German Army where many troops spoke English. There was a curiosity between the troops. They would trade hats and check out each other’s equipment. The Russians drank a lot and were loud. They treated the Germans harshly. It was payback time and the Soviets massacred many Germans. The Germans had a scorched earth policy as they retreated across the Soviet Union. The Russians were brutal to the Germans as they advanced through Germany. They raped the women. They acted like animals. As a prize for capturing a German town, the Russians were given liberty to do anything to the inhabitants for a period of time. Some Germans would shoot their daughters rather than letting them fall prey to the Russians. People were screaming in the streets. That was what war was all about. Women have been raped throughout the wars of history. As the Russians were celebrating, the Americans stayed in their room and kept a low profile. When the Soviet soldiers finally came, they were crude and blunt. They gave the Americans Thompson submachine guns. The freed Americans were told to follow their liberators. They fought with the Russians for two days before the Americans reached them. That was exciting to be reunited with the Americans. It was a long time ago.

Walter Halloran was anxious to return home after the war. He experienced a feeling of wellbeing. He was satisfied that he had done his job well. It was a relief that he would not have to fight in the Asian war as it had ended. It took months before he could return from Europe. He was in Bavaria in the Alps. He was attached to General Patton [Annotator’s Note: General George S. Patton] who had moved his 3rd Army to Bavaria. Halloran kept busy photographing him and his daily business. Patton met with local representatives and other dignitaries. Halloran had no problem with Patton. He had his way of doing things but he got the job done. It is similar to Trump [Annotator’s Note: President Donald Trump]. Both have shown themselves to be unpredictable but seem to get the job done. Halloran took photographs of the general riding beautiful white horses. Patton was an excellent horseman. After he dismounted, he came over to Halloran and quizzed him on the technicalities of his camera. Halloran was one of the few staff sergeants who had 15 minutes one on one with the general. Patton seemed interested in Halloran’s experience with the cavalry while he was stationed in Texas [Annotator’s Note: Halloran had specialized equipment for his horse to carry the cameras and tripod while he was riding in the cavalry.]. Patton, like Halloran, was stationed at Fort Clark in Texas. There was a sign on a house there that indicated that Patton had lived there. It was a great experience to talk with Patton. Halloran asked the general how he communicated with the animal when he rode. He had seen no visible signs of any directions being given to the animal. That was when Halloran told Patton that he had been with the cavalry. Patton responded that he communicated with the horse through magic. He was quite a horseman who had competed in the Olympics. He was also the wealthiest man in the United States Army. Halloran was transferred back to the United States on a troopship. It was the same ship he had deployed on several years before. That was very unusual. The ship landed in New York. He rushed home to see his family. He returned to the Army afterward. It was great to return. He even saw his future wife. Seeing his mother was special. He then went to Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He spent a lot of time there. He did photographic work as a sergeant there. Most men got out of the service but Halloran, not seeing any significant employment opportunities, remained in the Army. There was reduction in forces at the end of the war. Many people were being resettled but it did not affect Halloran much. He photographed a lot of research and development work at Fort Huachuca as well as Army maneuvers. It was interesting to see the new equipment under development. The sky at Fort Huachuca was very clear and an asset for the work being done there. Photographic equipment changed very slowly. A 70mm camera was even tested.

Walter Halloran was sent to Korea after the conflict started up there [Annotator’s Note: the Korean War started with the North Koreans invading South Korea on 25 June 1950. Halloran does not specify when he was deployed to Korea.]. During his time in Korea, he was given a field commission to second lieutenant. That was a satisfying promotion for him. The promotion committed him to remain in the Army. As an officer, he had a better position of responsibility in the military. General MacArthur [Annotator’s Note: General Douglas MacArthur commanded the United Nations forces in Korea initially.] had a policy that any second lieutenant who had served 30 days in combat qualified to be promoted to first lieutenant. Halloran was promoted and assigned to the 40th Infantry Division as the photographic officer. He did essentially the same thing he had done in Europe. He followed the infantry into combat. The clothes had improved but the camera equipment did not improve much. As a career officer, he did not worry about going back into combat. He was satisfied he did a good job with more responsibility and better pay. He had a good group of men in Japan that went with him over to Korea. They took a troop transport to Korea and landed in Pusan. The area became known as the Pusan Perimeter. It was smaller than Normandy. The operation turned into a success. A man should not have to go through multiple amphibious landing assaults under fire. The local villagers mainly stayed in their homes until the fighting passed them. They were persecuted by the North Koreans who attempted to get them to cooperate with them. They did not for the most part. The landscape and clothing and people in Korea were all different from that seen in Europe. Europe seemed more familiar to the American troops. Returning from Korea was much nicer than returning from Europe. Halloran returned to a wife and child from Korea rather than as a single man returning from Europe.

Walter Halloran returned to Fort Huachuca in Arizona with his wife and child [Annotator’s Note: this was following his service in the Korean War.]. He was a captain in charge of the research and development for aerial photography. The Army did have aircraft, and it was good experience. He had a nice house and a new baby showed up. The whole family got orders to go to Europe. One large Army photographic company was in Europe. Housing for his family was on the base. It was just fine with new experiences. He became involved in the first drones that were being developed at Fort Huachuca. He was part of the efforts to mount cameras in drones. It was interesting work. Drones became more important. While Halloran was in Germany, a company was formed in Bavaria to build larger drones. He was ordered to the Bavarian location to follow the state of the art developments. After arrival there, Halloran was surprised to find that he was named commander of the base there. It was a great assignment for a few years. He then attended Senior University at the General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. That was unexpected but pleasing to Halloran. After graduation, he was in Arizona and told to fly to the Pentagon. He discovered that he was being sent to Indonesia. He was to be assigned to the embassy there. While at the college, he had met a senior officer in the Indonesian military. They became friends. After the Indonesian returned home, he was promoted. He then requested that Halloran come to his country to assist in the analysis of his country’s equipment. This was in keeping with the practice of swapping and testing equipment with other countries. Halloran and his colleagues would travel countries in Asia to confirm that the requests made by those countries were actually needed. Multi-day conferences were held in Hawaii occasionally to debrief one another and confirm the actual needs of those requesting countries. During this time, Halloran could see the problems in Vietnam coming on. It was during the afterhour’s meetings that the subject would be brought up about emerging difficulties in Southeast Asia. Next, Halloran was assigned to the Pentagon in Washington. He was second in command of all photographic operations in the American Army. There were lots of people and money involved in making training films some of which also included Ronald Reagan as an actor [Annotator’s Note: Reagan had been on the review committee that initially accepted Halloran into the Army as a member of the photographic service. Halloran respected Reagan for his participation in that effort.]. Halloran had a corner office in the Pentagon. He was sent next to the Secretary of Defense to provide a detailed analysis of every piece of audio and visual equipment in the military. Army, Navy and Air Force representatives were named to the group. Halloran was named as the army representative. He did not want the assignment, but his boss demanded he join the effort. There were six on the committee which included enlisted personnel. They traveled the world to get input from the equipment users. They returned to Washington to compile the information and make the final reports. After that, orders were received to go to Vietnam.

Walter Halloran packed up and left his family to serve his first tour of duty in Vietnam. He was not alone in pondering the need for American involvement there. The French had left Vietnam so why was America getting so immersed into the conflict there. It seemed obvious that the war was going to escalate with more people being killed and yet the Vietnamese did not appear to want us there. They wanted independence from the French and the United States just appeared to be another band of foreigners stepping into their country. It was a frustrating question to answer. Lyndon Johnson would appear on the television to pump up American feelings about aiding the Vietnamese [Annotator’s Note: President Lyndon B. Johnson was Commander in Chief during the rapid escalation of the American involvement in Vietnam.]. Halloran would ultimately have two tours in Vietnam. Each of the tours was for one year. In his first tour, the Americans served as advisors. There were very few Americans in the country at that time. The advisors were sent out in the countryside and assigned to Vietnamese divisions. They were side by side with the Vietnamese and even ate the same food. The goal was to see what arms, training, and other needs the Vietnamese required. They would go on patrol with them in the rice paddies in chest deep water. After the first year, Halloran returned to the Pentagon. There was an anti-Vietnam and anti-government protest at the time. It caused tremendous turbulence with thousands of people participating. There was significant dissension about the potential of Vietnam falling. Those who advocated participation in the war thought that if Vietnam fell, it would result in a domino effect of other nearby countries likewise falling to communism. There were strong arguments about the topic. Many young men did not want to be drafted and go over there. Halloran and McNamara [Annotator’s Note: Robert McNamara was Secretary of Defense during the administration of Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. This was the period of the ramp up in American troop involvement in Vietnam.] were on the roof of the Pentagon watching the protestors. They wanted to see what was going on. Halloran had photographers in the midst of the protesters. They filmed the activities. They had been told to not shave for a few days prior so they would blend in with the crowd. There was a frustration with the ongoing situation. There was no telling where the country would go. It was unlike World War Two where the public was totally behind the military. In the earlier conflict, people would readily offer to take a serviceman home for dinner. Vietnam did not have that level of support. Conversations could quickly turn volatile during the later war. Everyone was behind the effort in World War Two. Halloran was still in the Signal Corps during his second tour in Vietnam. He was a battalion commander in a communications division. He was promoted to colonel and commanded 4,000 men in different units that were all devoted to communications. There were message centers, telephones, telegraphs under his watch. That was his last assignment before he returned home. He reflects on Skippy as the youngest man in the outfit and eventually reaching his extent of authority [Annotator’s Note: when Halloran entered the service, he was given the nickname Skippy because of his size and youth. The nickname stuck with him through his career and retirement.]. It was a busy but satisfying experience to command 4,000 people. When the plans worked out, it was rewarding. The largest problems he faced were related to drugs and race. The resistant draftees caused problems. The narcotics were made abundant by the Vietnamese. The racial problems among the troops were significant. Those were the negative parts of the last tour. The positive side was when a major operation came off well. The general would call up and commend Halloran for doing a good job. That was rewarding.

Walter Halloran flew back to the United States after his tour in Vietnam. It was exciting to return to his family. It was sobering to realize that he had survived three wars [Annotator’s Note: Halloran had served in World War Two then the Korean War and Vietnam.]. He wondered if he would get to the airport alive since it was on the opposite side of Saigon. It was a long drive across the dangerous city with thousands of scooters. The Vietcong were looking for officers returning home in open jeeps. They were favorite targets of opportunity. The sapper would drive the scooter up to the jeep and toss a grenade in it. The enemy hoped they could injure or kill the American officer before he left the country. Many officers were killed that way. It was easy for the enemy. Halloran’s men surprised him and made a helicopter available for him. He would not have to drive across Saigon. When he arrived in Alaska, the men had put a call through to his wife for him. They tracked his progress all the way home. That attention surprised Halloran. When he reached home, there was a young second lieutenant ready to pick him up and transport him to his home. It was a bit of a drive but it was done in deference to his last day in the Army. Colonel Halloran had been tracked all the way from Saigon. It touched him that his men cared that much to do that for him. It was a great ride with the second lieutenant asking very interesting and probing questions about Halloran’s career. The officer that replaced Halloran in Vietnam had been a staff officer in the Pentagon. He had arranged all the personal treatment that Halloran enjoyed in route home. Halloran never realized that the man he had said goodbye to in Vietnam had made such an effort to get him safely home. Halloran was overcome at the time of his return by all the flowers at home and the beauty of being with his family again. It was amazing that a few hours before he had been in war torn Vietnam and now he was safely back in the United States. His wife had committed to be waiting for him with their children when he returned. She only asked him where he had been [Annotator’s Note: Halloran chuckles at the memory.]. Halloran was ready to retire. It was time to give TLC [Annotator’s Note: TLC—tender loving care] to his daughters. They went through college. It was a great career where both he and his wife had done their duties.

Walter Halloran was unaware that Time magazine had published an article in 1944 about the 165th [Annotator’s Note: the 165th Signal Photographic Company was Halloran’s unit in World War Two.] entitled “War through a Lens.” He thought the idea of the article was great. It tells the story. Information transfer during World War Two took far longer than during Vietnam when satellite uploads could put a picture in the Pentagon in minutes. Rapid information flow is probably good, but it can be abused. That is a tough concept. Providing images in the Second World War did not have as large an impact because people were more concerned with daily issues directly affecting them. There was not much discussion about wars at the time. Today’s equipment used by the military is unbelievable. In shooting the images of World War Two, Halloran did not consider the perspective viewers. He was more overwhelmed with the S-S-S [Annotator’s Note: Sight-Sound-Smell] he experienced. He was particularly affected by the man who died right in front of him [Annotator’s Note: following the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp]. At that point, he was not thinking of the people back home. Halloran will never forget that man’s eyes. They showed his gratitude just before he died in front of Halloran. The images that Halloran captured on D-Day have become iconic but he never considered at the time that they would [Annotator’s Note: Halloran landed with the 1st Infantry Division on Omaha beach on D-Day 6 June 1944. His motion picture film has appeared in documentary films.]. Most of the men were very young and did not have any particular great thoughts in their minds. It was different days. World War Two gave Halloran an appreciation for the gifts that have been given to us in this country. There is nothing like it elsewhere. In World War Two, there was a sense that the country backed the military. In the years since, particularly in Vietnam, there was major public dissent and racial problems to deal with that were far different than the earlier war. World War Two service provided an opportunity for good to prevail over evil. It costs a lot of lives, but Hitler and Tojo [Annotator’s Note: Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo were Axis leaders of Germany and Japan, respectively.] could have done significant harm otherwise. Halloran has a deep appreciation for living in a good country.