Thomas Ware served in the Navy from 1949-1953 as an aviation photographer and was stationed in Hawaii, where he photographed baseball star Ted Williams.
Ted Williams is the last baseball player to hit better than .400 in a season. He played in 18 All-Star games, batting .304 with four homers and 12 RBIs.
After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, Ted Williams, former Boston Red Sox slugger, was called into active duty again during the Korean War. He’s shown here in February 1953 at the Marine Airbase in South Korea, soon after he crash landed his Thunderjet on his first combat mission over North Korea. Williams walked away safely from the crash. (Fred Waters/The Associated Press) After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, Ted Williams, former Boston Red Sox slugger, was called into active duty again during the Korean War. He’s shown here in February 1953 at the Marine Airbase in South Korea, soon after he crash landed his Thunderjet on his first combat mission over North Korea. Williams walked away safely from the crash. (Fred Waters/The Associated Press)Thomas Ware sits at a long table in the sunroom of his Lookout Mountain home surrounded by papers and photographs. He’s digging through a briefcase full of folders which are full of things he collected over the years.
On this day, the retired professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, is particularly interested in going through the photos and literature he’s saved that detail the day back in 1952 when he followed baseball-great-turned-Navy-pilot Capt. Ted Williams around Honolulu. The pictures are of special interest because they were taken by Ware, then a U.S. Navy photographer, who had been assigned the enviable task of documenting Williams’ visit on his way to Korea.
“It was all quite an experience,” Ware says.
Williams was the last Major League player to hit over .400 for the season, which he did in 1941. Then, as now, he was considered one of the best to ever play the game, so he was a huge star and he knew the Honolulu trip was primarily a publicity opportunity for the military
He wasn’t overly happy about it, Ware recalls.