"I pointed out to [the colonel] that one of my pictures had been published in the Army's photographic history of World War II with an erroneous caption. And he looked at me and he said, 'Lieutenant, we don't make mistakes.' And I said, 'Thank you, sir.'" (Audio Interview, Part 2, 15:22)

William Robinson Wilson

William Wilson in uniform [between 1941 and 1945] War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Unit: Unit C3, 162nd Signal Company, Photographic Company, Army Pictorial Service Service Location: North Africa; Sicily, Italy Rank: Captain Place of Birth: IA

In 1941,William Wilson began his career with the 162nd Signal Company Photo in a most inauspicious way: for three months, he laid cable at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. By the time he was discharged in 1945, his photos had been published in Life and Look magazines, and he had worked with and become good friends with Ernie Pyle. Wilson's photos from World War II, both official and personal, number in the hundreds. Depicting both the tragedy of war—a rainy funeral for a fallen G.I.—and the tragicomic—his only war injury: a broken toe—Wilson's work offers insight into how a creative, well- educated young man perceived the war from behind a camera's viewfinder.