"The minute something starts to happen, your training with a camera tells you you’re there to take pictures, so you look for the pictures to take." (Video Interview, 34:23)

Norman Hatch

Norman Hatch [5/2007] War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Marine Corps Unit: 2nd Marine Division; 5th Marine Division Service Location: Washington, DC; Tarawa Atoll (Gilbert Islands); Iwo Jima; Pacific Theater Rank: Major Place of Birth: MA

Enlisting in the Marine Corps after rejection from the Navy, Staff Sergeant Norman Hatch applied to photo school three times with no success. A lucky break finally allowed him to train with the “March of Time” newsreel photographers, who taught him to use his motion picture camera to tell a story. By 1943, he was in the Pacific Theater, filming the Battle of Tarawa. One of the bloodiest of the war, the invasion lasted for three days; Hatch landed on the island with his fellow Marines, and kept his camera rolling throughout the intense action. His footage of the invasion, "With the Marines at Tarawa," went on to win the 1944 Academy Award for Best Short Documentary.