Lee Embree (July 9, 1915 – January 24, 2008) was an American Army staff sergeant and photographer who took the first American air-to-air photographs of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Embree took the pictures of the attack from on board an Army Air Corps B-17 which he happened to be flying on from California to Hawaii on December 7, 1941, as the Japanese attacked the Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. ^[1]

Personal life

Lee Embree was born and raised in Iowa. ^[1] He married his first wife, Elizabeth Gene "Betty" Lain on February 22, 1941. ^[1] Betty died in 1998, and he married his second wife, Violet "Vi" Timm McRoberts, in 2001. ^[1]

Pearl Harbor photographs

Embree first enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1936. ^[1] By 1941, the year of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Embree had become a staff sergeant. ^[1]

Embree snapped a number of pictures of the attack, but eventually stopped. In a 2001 interview, he explained "Many people have asked me why I didn't take more photos from the air... I can only answer that I was so flabbergasted at what I saw that I forgot about the camera that was in my hand." ^[1]

Later life

Embree enlisted in the Air Force Reserve in 1945. ^[1] He officially retired as a major from the military in 1957. He and his family lived and worked in Southern California for many years. Embree moved to Port Angeles, Washington, in 1988. ^[1]

Embree was interviewed in 2003 by a production crew for the Discovery Channel for a documentary on the Pearl Harbor attacks. ^[1] He also appeared in the KCTS series Stories of the Northwest in 2007. ^[1] The locally produced series, which focused on the lives of World War II veterans in the Pacific Northwest, ^[2] was aired as a complement to PBS' The War. ^[1]

Embree's photographs, as well as his Speed Graphic camera, goggles and dog tags, were placed on display at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, in 2007. ^{[1] [2]}

Death

Lee Embree died at his home in Port Angeles on January 24, 2008, of a kidney infection at the age of 92. ^{[1] [2]} He was buried at Mount Angeles Memorial Park. ^[1] He was survived by his second wife, and by two children, three grandchildren, three stepchildren and five step-grandchildren.

References

External links

• Lee Embree Collection at The Museum of Flight Digital Collections