This April 1945 photo shows the impatient calm before the storm as a Coast Guard–manned landing boat moves toward the beach of Okinawa. Wearing their war paint, Marines present a study in facial expressions of fighting men just before the fighting starts.
This and other photographs and artwork are available as prints through the Naval Institute Photo Archive. Contact us at 1-800-233-8764, [email protected], or visit our website, www.usni.org.
