As a high school student in suburban New York City, Tony Vaccaro became fascinated with photography. Two months after graduating, when he was drafted into the Army during World War II, he showed a captain the photographs he had taken for his yearbook and asked for a stint as a combat photographer with the Signal Corps.

“The pictures are great,” the officer told him. However, having no combat experience and being too young to be a skilled photographer, he was rejected. However, at 21, he was old enough to become an infantryman. Private Vaccaro spent 272 days fighting with the 83rd Infantry Division fighting its way from Normandy to Germany.