#8: The B-24 Liberator Commander (1944)
Wartime images of Stewart in flight gear beside B-24 Liberators carry a gravity no studio still could manufacture. He served in Europe, flew combat missions, and commanded men under terrifying conditions. The lanky actor from Capra films became a bomber officer responsible for crews, routes, weather, flak, and loss. Later, he rarely romanticized the experience. The photographs do enough. His face in uniform suggests a man who had learned that courage and fear often ride in the same cockpit.
