I recently curated the life work of my father, Lester Marks, a US Army combat cinematographer.
My dad, the son of Jewish immigrants, was a highly decorated American soldier, the recipient of a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and three Purple Hearts.
During WWII, he served as a paratrooper with the 550 Airborne Infantry (part of the 101 Airborne Band of Brothers). He was awarded a Silver Star for capturing 15 German prisoners in Le Muy France during Operation Dragoon .
He was wounded and captured during the Battle of the Bulge, and was a POW in Nazi Germany.
Thankfully, he had the foresight to throw away his dog tags that included his religious identification, otherwise, I would not be writing to you today.
After the war, he trained as a motion picture cameraman and joined the US Army Signal Corps. He was the first photographer to parachute into war and filmed the 187 Regimental Army airdrop into Korea.
In addition, he was the sole cinematographer for the 1954 Academy Award documentary Operation Blue Jay about the Thule base in Greenland. The Life Magazine cover (Sept 22, 1952) called the operation "The Biggest Secret Operation since D-Day".
Like other members of the greatest generation, my father was a very modest man. He never spoke about his extraordinary accomplishments and would tell me once you have been through hell, you do not want to go back. Paradoxically, he saved everything.
My goal is to tell the story of this larger than life American hero and the untold chapters of Cold War history that he experienced. Stay tuned, I'm working on a dedicated website.
