Former Army photographer recalls World War II era

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By Kara Houser, Staff Writer
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September 8, 2009 — From New York to London, World War II was dominating the headlines in July of 1943.

The same month that allied troops landed in Sicily, Reba Hobson saw many of her friends join the war effort and didn't want to be left behind. So, at 21, she signed up for the WAC (Women's Army Corps) and left her family farm in Michigan for Georgia to participate in basic training.

Portrait of Reba taken during her time in the WAC. Contributed Photo.

"We had to do the obstacle course in basic training once - and that was enough," Hobson said.

After basic training she was assigned to specialize in photography and completed a four-week training course in Colorado, where she was taught how to work the cameras and develop film. She was then assigned to her permanent post on the Salinas Army Base in California, where they trained fighter pilots. Her job, along with others in the photo lab, was to document the day-to-day activities of base life, as well as special events such as parades, dignitary visits, and Hollywood entertainment.

Two of the many pictures of planes Reba took during World War II. Contributed Photos.

"Whenever something happened on base, one of us was supposed to be there." Hobson recalls.

When asked what photo was most memorable, she says that they were asked to take pictures of a crash site where a training run had gone wrong up in the mountains.

"They didn't want us to take pictures of the body, just the engines and the other parts. We came in a Jeep right behind the medic and they had us take pictures so they could figure out what had happened."

Hobson's war scrapbook contains very few pictures of life and activities on the base. When asked why, she explains that they were required to burn the film, not because it was of a sensitive nature, but simply because it was Army property. She was able to keep a few of her prints, including one of some fighter planes that she took from the air, and another of repairs being done on a propeller. However, the majority of the photos she was allowed to keep are what Hobson considers her "practice" shots.

Reba and an associate burn film as a matter of policy. Contributed Photo.

"The training we got was mostly about how to develop the film, or use the big cameras we had then," she said. "They didn't teach us how to take good photos."

Now an 87-year-old member of the Post Falls 2nd Ward, Coeur d'Alene Stake, Hobson admits her photos help her remember a lot about her service during World War II. Although she doesn't really think they are all that interesting, her photos tell of a time when cameras were as big as a backpack, when a video camera was called a "moving picture machine," and when men and women spent their relaxation time in full dress uniforms, which included shined shoes, ties, carefully creased pants for the men, and skirts for the women.

Reba and other friends who worked in the photography lab as they celebrate V-J (or Victory over Japan) Day. Contributed Photo.

When asked about how the war affected her, Hobson brushes the question off nonchalantly.

"I was just in California, not overseas," she said. "And I was in the service, so we got the best of everything. I remember my parents couldn't get things like sugar, but they had most everything else from the farm."

Reba Hobson reviews some of her albums containing pictures she took during World War II. Contributed Photo.

She goes on to explain that her mother had five family members in the service during the war. Hobson had a brother who served under Gen. George S. Patton in Germany, a brother-in-law who was one of the Army doctors who first went into the Buchenwald concentration camp after it was liberated, a brother-in-law who served as a Navy officer in the South Pacific, and a brother-in-law who trained pilots in the Air Force. They all returned home safely.

Hobson herself was discharged in October of 1945, went back to Michigan briefly, and then moved to California to go to the Fred Archer School of Photography. There she met her husband and settled down to raise a family. When California started getting too crowded for their taste, Hobson and her husband began looking for a smaller town, which prompted their move to Post Falls in 1989. "I still miss the California weather though," admits Hobson, with a smile.

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