'Fire in the belly'
<p>At his Coeur d’Alene apartment on Tuesday, Richard “Bud” Budvarson, 89, talks about his experiences as a photographer in the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division during World War II.</p>
<p>Budvarson shows how a 4-inch by 5-inch sheet of black and white film fits into a holder.</p>
<p>Bud Budvarson’s Army cameras are housed in a display case next to a pair of prints shot in 1945 in his room at Brookdale Senior Living Center.</p>
<p> Bud Budvarson digs through an original Army-issues trunk looking for photography gear that was used during his service between 1944 and 1947.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE — Bud Budvarson did a lot of shooting during World War II, but he never packed a gun around.
The 89-year-old Coeur d'Alene man was a news photographer and paratrooper for the Army's 82nd Airborne from 1944 to 1947.
He treasures his Army-issued Speed Graphic camera, in a display case in his living room beside his military trunk of other war memorabilia and below his black-and-white snapshots on the wall.
"The camera works as good now as when I got it in '45," Budvarson said. "I'm pretty proud of it."
Budvarson was not deployed overseas during World War II, but served during Task Force Rigid in Fairbanks, Alaska, testing equipment and documenting fellow paratroopers instead. While he wasn't in combat, there were stressful times.
He said he witnessed about 10 men get killed during jumping exercises due to parachute failures.
"Jumping during World War II was not a fun sport," Budvarson said. "Every time I jumped I had fire in the belly. You didn't know for sure what would happen."
Paratroopers generally jumped from 1,200 feet, but sometimes as low as 400 during combat.
Budvarson said he made 52 jumps and the only time he was injured was when he froze his hands during 18-below-zero weather while assisting in the airplane — not while jumping.
"I never got over the fear of jumping, but when you got in that airplane you knew you'd be jumping out," he said. "If you didn't, somebody would be pushing you out. No matter how scared you got, you made a commitment to jump. Every time you jumped, you prayed."
When Budvarson jumped, he knew he'd be in the field for up to a week so, as a photographer, he had to carry enough flashbulbs and film to capture the moments.
"I looked like a balloon packing stuff around with me," he said.
For every night photo, a different flashbulb needed to be used. After 12 or so photos, Budvarson needed to change film under his clothing to avoid light destroying the photographs.
Budvarson's war photos are compiled in his "photo diary" that he made for his grandchildren. Among them is a paratrooper snaring the equipment of another with his foot in mid-air to save the soldier's life.
Budvarson developed his own still shots and sent them to Army headquarters. His photographs were published in newspapers across the country, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post and Atlanta Journal.
Budvarson sent his film to the Signal Corps. He saw footage he shot in a documentary soon after the war.
"I had my own Jeep and special access as an official news photographer," he said. "I was allowed to go in places such as officer barracks that most people were not allowed to go. I had an open-ended pass to go anywhere."
Budvarson said he grew up dabbling in photography and, while he was going to jumping school at Fort Benning, Ga., he seized the opportunity to take a photography class put on by the Signal Corps. That led to his assignment in the Army.
Being a news photographer in the Army was the start of Budvarson's newspaper career. He worked for 38 years in the Hagadone Corp., including 18 years as publisher of the Shoshone News-Press and 20 years as advertising director for the Coeur d'Alene Press.
Budvarson packed his Speed Graphic, which shoots 4-by-5 film, with him on a trip to Washington, D.C., three years ago as part of an Inland Northwest Honor Flight. Some of the memorial photos he captured during the trip are displayed in his living room. It was the first time he'd been back to the nation's capital since 1946.
Considering the manual steps it takes to operate his old standby camera, it's no wonder why Budvarson embraces today's color and digital photography and even Facebook to show friends and relatives his time of service.
Up until a year ago, Budvarson took photos as a hobby and developed his black and white photos using a makeshift darkroom.
Today, as Budvarson reflects on World War II during Veterans Day, he cherishes his memories of serving his country.
"I was proud of what I did," he said.