The Art and Artifacts of Combat Artist and War Correspondent Tom Lea

By Leigh E. Smith Jr. and Naomi Absalon

Article published on: January 1, 2025 in the Winter 2025 Edition

Read Time: < 7 mins

As World War II raged across the globe, news agencies scrambled to send correspondents into harm’s way to get the latest information about the conflict. Reporters, journalists, photographers, and artists all sought to capture the war and bring the news to the home front. One of those who answered the call was civilian artist Tom Lea.

Thomas Calloway Lea III was born 11 July 1907 at Hotel Dieu Hospital in El Paso, Texas. Tom Lea’s father, Thomas C. Lea Jr., was the mayor of El Paso from 1915 to 1917. After Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico, in March 1916, killing several soldiers and civilians, Tom’s father, as mayor, publicly declared he would arrest Villa if the rebel leader came to El Paso. Villa responded by placing a bounty of 1,000 pesos on Mayor Lea’s head. During this tumultuous time and for six months after, Tom and his brother Joe were escorted to and from school by police officers, and a twenty-four-hour guard monitored the Lea residence. Tom graduated from El Paso High School in 1924, after which he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He then apprenticed under John W. Norton, a Chicago muralist. While in Chicago, Lea met and married a fellow student of art, Nancy Jane Taylor, and they traveled to Europe to see works of art in Paris and Italy. When Lea and Nancy returned to the United States, they moved to New Mexico.

Lea made a reputation for himself painting murals in Missouri, Texas, and Washington, D.C., for the Works Progress Administration, an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers. One of Lea’s early murals, “The Nesters,” painted in the Post Office Department Building in Washington, D.C., won a national competition in 1935.

In 1936, the Leas moved back to El Paso, where Nancy died from surgical complications from an appendectomy. Lea continued to paint murals as well as illustrations for Life and Saturday Evening Post magazines. He later was commissioned to paint the mural “Pass of the North” in the United States District Court House in El Paso, and the artwork was completed on 6 July 1938. Also in 1938, Lea met and married Sara Dighton from Monticello, Illinois, who became Tom’s lifelong partner. During this time in El Paso, Tom met book designer and typographer Carl Herzog and noted Texas writer J. Frank Dobie, both of whom became frequent collaborators. Lea illustrated two of Dobie’s books, The Longhorns and Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. In 1940, Lea also won a Rosenwald Fellowship, but after receiving an invitation from Life magazine to be a featured contributor, he declined the fellowship.

"Pass of the North" Courtesy of the Tom Lea Institute

In 1941, Life magazine hired Lea as an accredited war correspondent, illustrator, and combat artist. Lea traveled over 100,000 miles to the various combat theaters in the South Pacific, North Atlantic, China Burma India Theater, North Africa, Europe, and the Artic. He recorded the events of U.S. and Allied soldiers, sailors, and marines, and brought Life readers the graphic horrors and heroisms of the war with a stark human perspective. Reflecting on his wartime experience, Lea said, “I became, for deeply felt reasons, an eye-witness reporter, in drawings and paintings, of men and their machines waging a war worldwide. I want to make it clear that I did not report hearsay; I did not imagine, or fake, or improvise; I did not cuddle up with personal emotion, moral notion, or political opinion about War with a capital W. I reported in pictures what I saw with my own two eyes, wide open."¹

Lea witnessed some of the most iconic battles of World War II. In 1941, he went to sea in the North Atlantic on a destroyer that was escorting supply convoys to Iceland. During this sea voyage, he went aboard other ships and the patrol bombers of the air arm of the convoy, capturing in his art the jobs of those protecting the convoy of ships and the vital war supplies bound for England. After returning to the states, he finished his drawings and illustrations in Texas. From August through October 1942, Lea was on board the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, leaving the carrier just days before it was sunk during the Battle of Santa Cruz (25–27 October 1942). In 1943, Lea traveled across the globe to cover the war from England, North Africa, Greenland, and other countries in the European and American Theaters of Operations. In 1944, he went to the Pacific Theater of Operations and landed on the island of Peleliu just after the first assault wave of marines from the 1st Marine Division. Some of his most famous paintings were inspired from this landing, such as Going In (1944) and The Two-Thousand Yard Stare (1944). Lea’s wartime drawings and paintings, some of which became the most recognized and graphic images of the war, were printed in numerous issues of Life. Notably, Lea’s images and accompanying notes from the invasion of Peleliu Island were featured in the 11 June 1945 issue of Life.

As a war correspondent and artist, Lea wore many uniforms during his travels. Because 28 ArmyHistory WINTER 2025 many of the correspondents were embedded with the armed forces, they often wore fatigue uniforms, M1 helmets, field jackets, flight jackets, and officer dress uniforms. These articles of clothing were adorned with cloth and metal insignia identifying the wearer as a war correspondent. The Fort Bliss Museum in Fort Bliss, Texas, is home to several of Tom Lea’s uniform items from his time as a war correspondent. Such items include his dress uniform coat, a flight jacket, and his identification bracelet and card.

Lea’s dress uniform coat is a commercially-made version of the U.S. Army four-pocket officers’ service coat made of elastique in olive drab or chocolate brown, a dark shade color that later became known as shade 51. The coat includes two brass belt hooks (by the waist near the elbows) to support a leather Sam Browne belt. However, in November 1942, the brass hooks became optional, and the Sam Browne belt was replaced by a cloth belt. The coat also has a half-inch wide drab cloth braid around each cuff. Lea wore the U.S. officer’s collar brass and three campaign ribbons: from left to right, the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater campaign ribbon with one campaign star, the Asiatic-Pacific Theater campaign ribbon with three campaign stars, and the American Theater campaign ribbon. On the left upper arm is one of many versions of the U.S. war correspondent shoulder sleeve insignia, which those who reported from the battlefield wore to help themselves stand out from frontline troops. On the shoulder epaulettes of Lea’s uniform are British-made war correspondent metal insignia.

Tom Lea, pictured here in China U.S. Army

In lieu of the standard military issue identification tags (known as dog tags) worn by soldiers, sailors, and marines for identification purposes, Lea wore a stainless-steel bracelet on his wrist. The text of the bracelet reads: TOM LEA, LIFE MAGAZINE WAR CORRESPONDENT, BLOOD TYPE-A, TET [tetanus shot] 6 1942.

While embedded with the U.S. Navy, Lea was issued a temporary photographer’s identification card, which included a 1-inch by 1-inch photograph of Lea and listed his hair color (brown), eye color (brown), weight (150 pounds), and his date of birth (7–11–07). On the reverse side of the card were Lea’s right and left index fingerprints. This card authorized him to carry cameras and to take pictures within the Pacific Ocean Areas, while being subject to existing security instructions. All negatives exposed by Lea were subject to submission to the commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet or other specifically authorized personnel for processing and review. Lea’s identification card was valid until 31 December 1944.

The last article of clothing shown here is a post–World War II–era U.S. Navy nylon jacket worn by Tom Lea. The uniform tag identifies this jacket as a “Jacket, Winter Flying Suit, Specification MIL–S–18342A” and indicates the color (light olive green and partial khaki green). On the left pocket flap is a leather name tag with gold-printed naval aviator wings and the name “TOM LEA.” Over the right pocket is another metal example of the war correspondent insignia.

Following the war, Lea returned to El Paso and continued to paint murals and illustrations, but he also expressed in words what he had experienced during the war. He also wrote fiction that drew from his Texas roots: two of his novels, The Brave Bulls (Little, Brown, 1949) and The Wonderful Country (Little, Brown, 1952), became best sellers. Lea illustrated both books, and both stories were turned into motion pictures, in 1951 and 1959, respectively. In the later part of the 1960s, Lea wrote his autobiography, entitled A Picture Gallery: Paintings and Drawings (Little, Brown, 1968).

Tom Lea passed away in El Paso on 29 January 2001. He was 93 years old. His wife, Sarah Catherine Dighton Lea, donated many of his uniforms and mementos from his time covering World War II to the Fort Bliss Museum in 2002.

Tom Lea’s World War II artworks are part of the Army Art Collection. Although he was embedded with the Navy and Marines for most of his assignments for Life, his collected pieces were donated to the Department of Defense in 1960 with a condition that the works remain together as one collection rather than be split up among the military services. The Army was appointed custodian of the Life collection and received eighty-two paintings and drawings by Lea. Along with the rest of the Army Art Collection, these works are preserved at the Museum Support Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and are available for loans to both military and civilian museums.

Left: Portrait of Sgt R.H. Hulse, Crew Chief
Right: Portrait of Flying Cadet Bill Kelly

Left: Sgt Bruce Bieber
Right: Portrait of Pvt Wylie Potter

Notes