Saying aloha to Al Chang
I lost an old and valued friend recently. His name was Albert Chang, but we all called him Al. In the constellation of combat photographers, he was a bright shining star. I knew Al by reputation long before I knew him as a friend.
Al was a lifelong Hawaiian ‘ and proud to be. He was born July 13, 1922, on Maui. He grew up on Oahu, where his family worked on a sugar plantation.
As a 19-year-old Honolulu dock worker, Al saw the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Soon after that ‘day of infamy,’ he joined the Army as a rifleman. He soon discovered his true calling, as a combat photographer.
Al covered three wars. He served in the Pacific during World War II. He was there to capture the ultimate ‘photo opportunity’ ‘ the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri in 1945.
Al’s camera work in Korea proved he was one of the Army’s premier combat photographers. He served with the 5th Regimental Combat Team, composed mainly of Hawaiian soldiers. Perhaps his most poignant picture was the one taken of a U.S. Infantryman being comforted by a comrade as he grieves over the death of his friend who has just been killed in action. That stark image was flashed to the world and copied countless times. Fittingly, it graces his Washington Post obituary.
Al’s Korean War images were not all stark. One of his more memorable shots showed three soldiers taking a break, sharing canned poi and dried squid, with a ukulele cradled in one man’s lap.
Al continued to excel as a combat photographer in Vietnam, where he again demonstrated his talent for capturing newsworthy images that had immediate and lasting impact.
I first met Al in 1977, at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. By then, he was retired as a master sergeant and working for the Army as a civilian photographer. At the time, I knew of his storied past as a consummate combat photographer. However, he never mentioned it then, or in all the years I knew him. For a man of his awesome achievements and sterling reputation, he was modest beyond belief.
I came to know Al well, and to respect him even more, during my second tour in Hawaii as a brigade commander. Al always loved to go where the action was. He jumped at the chance to deploy with my Brigade Task Force to Camp Fuji, Japan in 1985. ??
Al was both a soldier’s soldier and a soldier’s photographer. His idea of a good time was hanging in a harness from a helicopter in flight, feet firmly planted on the skids, all to capture that perfect picture of our Blackhawk helicopters circling majestic Mount Fuji on a bitter cold, but sunny day. That breath-taking image, too, was flashed to the world.
Al Chang left this world, at age 85, on Sept. 30, 2007. But the legacy of his lens and his life will live on in the hearts and minds of the millions whose lives he touched by the sheer example of his own. Aloha, Al.
Thomas B. Vaughn can be reached by e-mail at tbvbwmi@blomand.net.