DALLAS - Long before Dr. George Boswell, 91, was a fixture at Parkland and Baylor Hospitals, he was a young Navy ensign.
On Dec. 6, 1941 he was traveling to Pearl Harbor with an admiral to deliver a briefcase with secret documents.
"This briefcase, with this information, was handcuffed to my Dad's hand,” said his daughter, Briana Brown.
The next day, the Japanese attacked.
"He had said, 'Wow, this is far from what you think you're going to see when you're marching up a field in Naval Reserves,'" Brown said. "'You don't ever think you're going to see something as horrific as this.'"
Boswell's brushes with history continued at the Battle of Iwo Jima, where he served as a Naval officer and helped develop film in the darkroom.
One day, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal came to the darkroom and told Boswell...
"'I don't think I got anything that is worth keeping, is worth developing.' My dad said, 'Let's just go ahead and see what you have,’” his daughter said.
What he had was the now-famous picture of the Iwo Jima flag raising.
It was a lot of living for a 25-year-old man, who was just getting started.
Boswell will be buried Friday at the National Cemetery in Dallas.
E-mail dschechter@wfaa.com
