Combat Photographer and Videographer
Douglas Morrell joined the Army Air Corps in 1939, beginning a career that would go on to span three wars. He had shot his first motion picture at age twelve, selling it for $10. As a combat photographer he flew thirty-two combat missions in WWII, bailed out three times, earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, and spent four months as a prisoner of war in Romania. He served making training films with the major Hollywood movie studios and training as a glider pilot before being deployed to Africa and Italy in 1943. His plane was shot down in March of 1944, and he evaded capture for twenty-five days, crossing Yugoslavia with a fellow crewmember. Two months after returning to duty he was again shot down, this time being captured and confined to an American POW camp in Bucharest. After his release he continued photography and videography for the military, including the atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands, before retiring in 1947. He worked as a professional civilian photographer until his return to the Air Force in March of 1952. He served through the Korean War as a combat photographer as well as making more training films, then served with the Alabama Air National Guard, making ten more training films over the next five years. He returned to combat photography during the Vietnam War, bailing out of his third airplane in 1968. He retired for the second time in 1974, and spent the next five years earning a degree in Anthropology from the University of California in Riverside. In 1980 he began working as a civilian consultant, critiquing and coordinating the Air Force combat documentation program, and conducting seminars. He retired for the final time in 1994 and was awarded the Combat Camera Lifetime Achievement Award and the Air Force Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award. A quote from an interview with Doug published in Airman Magazine in February 2016 sums it up perfectly. “They call me The Legend,” he said. “I went from the beginning of the Air Force all the way through World War II. I was in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada … I’ve been through so many near disasters around the world.”
Douglas Morrell joined the Army Air Corps in 1939, beginning a career that would go on to span three wars. He had shot his first motion picture at age twelve, selling it for $10. As a combat photographer he flew thirty-two combat missions in WWII, bailed out three times, earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, and spent four months as a prisoner of war in Romania. He served making training films with the major Hollywood movie studios and training as a glider pilot before being deployed to Africa and Italy in 1943. His plane was shot down in March of 1944, and he evaded capture for twenty-five days, crossing Yugoslavia with a fellow crewmember. Two months after returning to duty he was again shot down, this time being captured and confined to an American POW camp in Bucharest. After his release he continued photography and videography for the military, including the atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands, before retiring in 1947. He worked as a professional civilian photographer until his return to the Air Force in March of 1952. He served through the Korean War as a combat photographer as well as making more training films, then served with the Alabama Air National Guard, making ten more training films over the next five years. He returned to combat photography during the Vietnam War, bailing out of his third airplane in 1968. He retired for the second time in 1974, and spent the next five years earning a degree in Anthropology from the University of California in Riverside. In 1980 he began working as a civilian consultant, critiquing and coordinating the Air Force combat documentation program, and conducting seminars. He retired for the final time in 1994 and was awarded the Combat Camera Lifetime Achievement Award and the Air Force Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award. A quote from an interview with Doug published in Airman Magazine in February 2016 sums it up perfectly. “They call me The Legend,” he said. “I went from the beginning of the Air Force all the way through World War II. I was in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada … I’ve been through so many near disasters around the world.”
Combat Photographer and Videographer
Douglas Morrell joined the Army Air Corps in 1939, beginning a career that would go on to span three wars. He had shot his first motion picture at age twelve, selling it for $10. As a combat photographer he flew thirty-two combat missions in WWII, bailed out three times, earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, and spent four months as a prisoner of war in Romania. He served making training films with the major Hollywood movie studios and training as a glider pilot before being deployed to Africa and Italy in 1943. His plane was shot down in March of 1944, and he evaded capture for twenty-five days, crossing Yugoslavia with a fellow crewmember. Two months after returning to duty he was again shot down, this time being captured and confined to an American POW camp in Bucharest. After his release he continued photography and videography for the military, including the atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands, before retiring in 1947. He worked as a professional civilian photographer until his return to the Air Force in March of 1952. He served through the Korean War as a combat photographer as well as making more training films, then served with the Alabama Air National Guard, making ten more training films over the next five years. He returned to combat photography during the Vietnam War, bailing out of his third airplane in 1968. He retired for the second time in 1974, and spent the next five years earning a degree in Anthropology from the University of California in Riverside. In 1980 he began working as a civilian consultant, critiquing and coordinating the Air Force combat documentation program, and conducting seminars. He retired for the final time in 1994 and was awarded the Combat Camera Lifetime Achievement Award and the Air Force Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award. A quote from an interview with Doug published in Airman Magazine in February 2016 sums it up perfectly. “They call me The Legend,” he said. “I went from the beginning of the Air Force all the way through World War II. I was in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada … I’ve been through so many near disasters around the world.”
Douglas Morrell joined the Army Air Corps in 1939, beginning a career that would go on to span three wars. He had shot his first motion picture at age twelve, selling it for $10. As a combat photographer he flew thirty-two combat missions in WWII, bailed out three times, earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, and spent four months as a prisoner of war in Romania. He served making training films with the major Hollywood movie studios and training as a glider pilot before being deployed to Africa and Italy in 1943. His plane was shot down in March of 1944, and he evaded capture for twenty-five days, crossing Yugoslavia with a fellow crewmember. Two months after returning to duty he was again shot down, this time being captured and confined to an American POW camp in Bucharest. After his release he continued photography and videography for the military, including the atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands, before retiring in 1947. He worked as a professional civilian photographer until his return to the Air Force in March of 1952. He served through the Korean War as a combat photographer as well as making more training films, then served with the Alabama Air National Guard, making ten more training films over the next five years. He returned to combat photography during the Vietnam War, bailing out of his third airplane in 1968. He retired for the second time in 1974, and spent the next five years earning a degree in Anthropology from the University of California in Riverside. In 1980 he began working as a civilian consultant, critiquing and coordinating the Air Force combat documentation program, and conducting seminars. He retired for the final time in 1994 and was awarded the Combat Camera Lifetime Achievement Award and the Air Force Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award. A quote from an interview with Doug published in Airman Magazine in February 2016 sums it up perfectly. “They call me The Legend,” he said. “I went from the beginning of the Air Force all the way through World War II. I was in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada … I’ve been through so many near disasters around the world.”
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