R.I.P. George Mendonsa with thanks for your service

Marp · ‎03-09-2010

Excerpt from: nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna972761

George Mendonsa, a World War II veteran whose claim of being a sailor kissing a nurse in an iconic image was verified using facial recognition technology, died early Sunday, his daughter said. He was 95.

Mendonsa was living in an assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, and had been suffering from severe congestive heart failure, daughter Sharon Molleur told NBC News. He would have turned 96 on Tuesday, she added.

The eyes through which you see others may be the same as how they see you.

meallen616 · ‎01-10-2013

George Mendonsa,

Puppy Lips · ‎05-09-2010

I just told my husband that this gentleman died. I referred to him as the Sailor who kissed a nurse. My husband quipped back, "Was he sued for sexual harassment?"

How times have changed.

I hope he rests in peace.

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. Margaret Mead

just bee · ‎03-10-2010

The daughter of Austrian parents who both perished in the Holocaust, Greta Zimmer Friedman (1924-September 8, 2016) was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform when, on Aug. 14, 1945 - the day Japan surrendered to the United States - she was one of countless throngs who spilled onto New York City streets from restaurants, bars and movie theaters, celebrating the news.

That’s when George Mendonsa - a sailor happy that he wouldn’t be going back into combat - spotted Friedman, spun her around and planted a kiss. The two had never met. (In fact, Mendonsa was on a date with an actual nurse, whom he would later marry.) But a photo taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt - called “V-J Day in Times Square,” but known to most simply as “The Kiss” - became seared in the public consciousness after being published in Life Magazine. Another picture of the same scene (left), taken by U.S. Navy photographer Victor Jorgensen, also helped memorialize the moment as a perfect encapsulation of war’s end.

In 2012, Friedman reunited with Mendonsa in Times Square where they told CBS News’ Michelle Miller about their brief encounter. “I did not see him approaching and before I know it I was in this vice grip,” Friedman recalled.

And how long did they kiss? “Not long,” Mendonsa said. But the photographs made it immortal.

Credit: Lt. Victor Jorgensen/National Archives

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