Top: Alfred Eisenstaedt / Time-Life Pictures / Getty Images; Bottom: U. S. Naval Institute Press
niece, Rita, with them. We had a nice seafood dinner and I remember thinking,“ Holy, geez, she’ s beautiful.” Unfortunately, they were only in Newport for about a week, but I kept in touch with her by phone. The war was still going on and my leave was running out, but I made plans to make my reservations out of New York to head back to the ship so I could spend the last few days of my leave with her in New York. It was on my last day in New York that infamous LIFE magazine photo was taken.
News broke that the war was over and excitement filled the streets of New York. Broadcasts on the Times Square building lit up behind huge crowds that gathered to revel in the news. Parents were soon to be reunited with their children, and men could return to their girlfriends back home. It was a great sense of relief and calm for all of us to know that our lives would soon return to normal.
What would soon become one of the most iconic images of WWII was the result of a chance encounter I had with a young nurse, named Greta, who converged on Times Square at the same time.
In the excitement of the moment, I walked up and kissed the nurse. It might seem strange, especially considering I went on to marry Rita who I was visiting in New York that day, but it was the jubilation that everyone felt and it was an impulse. Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, who was there covering the celebration, immortalized that kiss forever. Of course if it hadn’ t been in New York, at that moment in time, I don’ t think the photo would have
THE QUESTION OF THE TRUE IDENTITY OF THE SAILOR AND NURSE LINGERED FOR DECADES. FROM THE LATE 1970S UNTIL ONLY RECENTLY, MOST THOUGHT THAT ONE-HALF OF THE PUZZLE HAD BEEN SOLVED, AS ALFRED EI- SENSTAEDT HIMSELF IDENTIFIED EDITH SHAIN- ANOTHER NURSE WHO HAD BEEN IN TIMES SQUARE ON VJ DAY( AND, LIKE MANY ON THAT HAPPY DAY, WAS THE RECIPIENT OF MANY A KISS)- AS“ THE NURSE.”
IT WAS NOT UNTIL 2012 WHEN THE BOOK, THE KISSING SAILOR, WAS PUBLISHED THAT AUTHORS GEORGE GALDORISI AND LAWRENCE VER- RIA, USING NEW AND SOPHISTICATED FORENSIC RESEARCH, PROVED WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT GEORGE MENDONSA AND GRETA FRIEDMAN WERE IN FACT THE“ SAILOR AND NURSE.”
WHILE THE FACES OF THE SAILOR AND NURSE COULD NOT BE SEEN TO HELP PROVE THEIR IDENTITY, THE FACE OF ONE OF THE PRINCIPALS OF THE STORY WAS CLEARLY VISIBLE- JUST ABOVE THE SAILOR’ S SHOULDER, THE SMILING FACE OF RITA PETRY, ON HER FIRST DATE WITH HER FUTURE HUSBAND, GEORGE MENDONSA.
received the fanfare it has in the years since it first appeared in LIFE.
In the photo, what you’ re seeing is a seconds long encounter between two strangers right before we went our separate ways. But as the photo started receiving more attention, Greta and I were reacquainted and we remain friends today.
In the decades since the photograph was published, there’ s been some senseless controversy about who is featured in that photo. Life wasn’ t able to identify us that day so there were
12 AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY