Two crewmen relax on the flight deck during a lull in operations.

Edward Steichen (1879-1973)

At the commencement of World War II, Steichen, then in his sixties, had retired as a full-time photographer. He was developing new varieties of delphinium, which in 1936 had been the subject of his first exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and the only flower exhibition ever held there.

When the United States joined the global conflict, Steichen, who had come out of the first World War an Army Colonel, was refused for active service because of his age. Later, invited by the Navy to serve as Director of the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit, he was commissioned a Lieutenant-Commander in January 1942. 

He served mostly in the Pacific in the Navy.  He was able to win a special exception to remain in service on the USS Lexington once he turn 64 and continued through the end of the war, retiring in December 1945 as a Captain.  His body of work from that conflict is spectacular.  

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USS Lexington (CV-16), November-December 1943. Two crewmen relax on the flight deck during a lull in operations. Man at right is sitting on an arresting cable. Photographed by Edward Steichen. Official U.S. Navy photograph.