Our History

Preserving Pacific history: Stripes librarian spent 40 years among the archives

Among them was former Stars and Stripes Pacific sports staffer Shelley Smith, who was about to get a huge career boost thanks to all that was breaking: “Ben Johnson has been caught taking drugs and is expected to be stripped of his 100-meter gold medal, according to International Olympic Committee sources,” the bulletin read from The Associated Press and other news services and sources.

Stars and Stripes was meant to be a GI’s newspaper, so it should come as no surprise that many of the publication’s standout journalists were active-duty service members. Stars and Stripes’ Pacific staffers went on to work for “60 Minutes,” draw for Marvel Comics and snap photos for Life magazine.

A native of Santa Monica, Calif., Drake served 10 months in the Korean War as an artilleryman, viewing up close the carnage on Heartbreak Ridge. He applied for one of a handful of reporting jobs at Stars and Stripes and joined the Pacific staff in July 1956.

More than eight decades ago, as the world reeled from the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered a war that would reshape history. Amid the turmoil of the Pacific theater, Stars and Stripes emerged as a vital source of information, reporting the battles, the hardships, and the triumphs of American service members. 

It still seems surreal, that we at Stars and Stripes Pacific must adjust to a world without longtime newsroom character and icon, Harold A. Drake, who died Sunday in Australia after a lengthy battle with stomach cancer.