On
December 7, 1941, Patric Levi Lanham, a 26-year-old naval photographer from
Tennessee stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, rendered his government—and his
fellow Americans—a great service. Acting on
the spur of the moment at his own initiative, “He
grabbed a camera and started shooting film of the ships exploding. Fragments went through the peak of his hat,
but he kept on shooting anyway.”[i]
 |
| Patric Levi Lanham c. 1939 |
 |
| A destroyed Vindicator, Pearl Harbor |
At the time, there was no direct telephone hook-up
between military authorities in Pearl Harbor and decision-makers in
Washington, D. C. Pat’s pictures were
sent to Washington by courier to help satisfy President Roosevelt’s need for
information about the extent of the damage.
For this accomplishment, Pat was presented at the
captain’s meritorious mast by Captain A. C. Read, commandant of a naval air
station, and “was cited as follows by
Rear Admiral P. N. L. Bellinger, commander of Patrol Wing No. 2: ‘For extraordinary
initiative and disregard of personal safety in the attack on the U. S. Pacific
fleet in Pearl Harbor territory of Hawaii by Japanese forces on Dec. 7, 1941,
in photographing the attack and damage from naval air station, Pearl Harbor,
despite the severe enemy bombing and strafing to which the station was being
subjected.’” [ii]
Born in Tazewell, Tennessee, on August 25, 1915, to
Fred and Mossie (Brooks) Lanham, Pat enlisted with the Navy in 1936 at the age
of 21. Apparently he was given training
in photography after enlistment, and on July 31, 1939, he was assigned to a
naval receiving ship in New York, New York.
 |
| USS Memphis |
Naval records show that a year later on August 31,
1940, Pat was aboard the USS Memphis
(CL-13), an Omaha-class light cruiser named for the city of Memphis, Tennessee,
appropriate for a Tennessee native, most would agree. The Memphis
is known to have left San Francisco for Alaska at that time, where it
remained in operations until early 1941.
Pat’s rank at this time was Photographer 3rd Class.
 |
| USS Wharton |
On August 30, 1941, Pat was assigned to the Wharton, a ship originally built for the
Munson Steamship Line but acquired by the United States Navy in November 1939 and
used as a troop transport and hospital ship in the Pacific throughout the war.
Three
months after the war began on February 28, 1942, Pat appears in the records at
the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. According to his obituary, Pat was
in a combat photo squadron in the Pacific and the Atlantic during most of World
War II. His action shots must have been
particularly well done as some of his footage was used in production of the
1944 movie A Wing and a Prayer,
starring Don Ameche. The plot centered
around an aircraft carrier on a decoy mission in the Pacific “with orders to
avoid combat, thus lulling Japanese alertness before the battle of Midway.”[iii]
Pat
continued his navy career beyond World War II, taking flight training and serving
as technical advisor and project superintendent for naval training films at the
Naval Photographic Center in Annapolis.
As part of his work, he studied movie making at RKO studios in
Hollywood, and his training film twice won top awards.
In
1948, Pat married North Carolina girl, Gladys Elizabeth Allen, and within a few
years they had a family of two sons and a daughter. Sadly, Pat’s life was cut short by cancer on
July 2, 1954. He was buried at Arlington
National Cemetery on July 6. Having entered the Navy as a high school graduate, Pat, at the time of his death, held the rank of Lieutenant Commander symbolized by the gold oak leaf insignia (photo of Pat's own insignia at left).  |
| F6F Hellcat Night Fighter |
Still
today, nearly 60 years after their uncle’s passing, two of Pat’s nephews—Richard
Cunningham and his older brother, namesake Patric Cunningham—remember occasions
in the early 1950s when they were about ages 5 and 9, respectively. Playing in rural Tennessee on their family’s
30-acre farm, they remember looking up into the sky and seeing their Uncle Pat
flying over, tilting his wings left and right in a friendly USA greeting, as he
would be heading in or out of Pensacola in his Grumman F6F Hellcat. The last of the Hellcats rolled off the
assembly lines in November of 1945, but they continued in use after the war as
night-fighters, some of which were converted for photo-reconnaissance, making
this Hellcat, the F6F-5P, just the ticket for a Tennessee boy with a knack for
photography and flying.
Sources
“Claiborne
Navy Photographer Cited for Pearl Harbor Bravery.” The Knoxville Journal. 15
May 1942.
Crawford,
Rod. “Summary of A Wing and a Prayer.” Internet Movie Database. n. d. Web. 21 Apr. 2013. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037466>
“Former Tazewell Man Dies While Serving with Navy.” Claiborne Progress. 7 Jul 1954.
Goebel,
Greg. “The Grumman F6F Hellcat.” 1 Jan
2003. Web. 21 Apr. 2013. <http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avf6f.html#m3>
Image of destroyed Vindicator. "Attack on Pearl Harbor." Wikipedia. 8 Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor>
“USS Memphis (SSN-691).” Wikipedia. 26 Mar. 2013. Web. 21
Apr. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Memphis_(SSN-691)>
“USS Wharton (AP-7). Wikipedia.
17 Nov. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wharton>
That was my Dad
ReplyDeleteMy husband, Patric Mitchell Cunningham, wishes to greet you. He was named for your father, being born Dec. 8, 1941.
DeleteI would love to meet anyone who knew Dad, I was a year old when he died. My email is srdbill@aol.com
DeleteWilliam Fredrick Lanham
Patric was my grandfather. I never knew him ! My mother was his daughter.
ReplyDeleteI can be reached at llanham1999@gmail.com
Delete