WWII photo exhibit at 6th Cavalry Museum in Fort Oglethorpe
On the evening of Sept. 18, the public was invited to a special exhibit on the second floor of the 6th Cavalry Museum in Fort Oglethorpe. Lining the walls was a series of panels depicting World War II photographs from the private collection of Ssgt. Hubert “Hubo” Lee Fisher, a WWII soldier and photographer.
Hubo, as he was known to all, joined the military at Fort Oglethorpe in 1943 and was sent to aerial photography school, along with many others, to train to go along on bombing raids and take pictures of sites before, during and after bombing.
But WWII photographers found themselves with spare time and good cameras during their service, so they started taking pictures of everything from the local people where they were stationed — that was the South Pacific and especially the Philippines for Hubo — to camp life, USO events, planes and other things. Hubo ended up with a large collection of his own and other people’s photographs after the war.
The planning for the exhibit started three years ago when Hubo’s grandson, Brent Templeton, interviewed his grandmother, who was 94 years old, about wartime experiences. Templeton, who runs an advertising agency that specializes in tourism, started working with Chris MCKeever, director of the 6th Cavalry Museum, on an idea for an exhibit that would interest not only local people but could be rented out to other museums.
Three years later, with the help of grants from the Georgia Council for the Arts and the Tucker Foundation, the dream has come to life.
“You never know what’s going to come of something like this,” says Templeton. “A lady was watching a television interview with Chris and saw one of the exhibit panels on TV and recognized a photo on it.”
It turned out the woman’s husband had grown up next door to Hubo in East Lake. The two men joined the Army at separate times and lost touch, only to end up in the same photography unit a couple of years down the road.
The pictures in the exhibit are ones that a relative had scanned from Hubo’s collection. The collection itself, and thus the notes and captions Hubo included with his pictures, had been lost in a fire, but the lady who saw the familiar photo had an album of her own with many of the same pictures in it and explanations to go with them. She brought it to the open house to share.
Hubo passed away in 1983 and is buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery. In addition to many of his relations who attended the exhibit, local veterans, city officials and neighbors, including a sevenyear-old boy who was fascinated with military history came to see Hubo’s photographs.
After viewing all the panels, guests settled at tables with period food to share memories. Allison Roth provided “SOS” food — Stuff on a Shingle, which says Chris Mckeever, is usually white gravy with chipped beef or ground sirloin in it and poured over bread, toast or crackers — or anything edible that could be considered a “shingle.” Roth also made molasses cookies and Armando’s Restaurant of East Ridge, Tenn., owned by Fort Oglethorpe Councilman James Childs, provided chicken fingers.
“We’re excited about the potential this exhibit has to keep the memories and history of World War II alive,” says Mckeever. “And we’re proud to be the originator of what will be a traveling exhibit on this topic.”