In City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara (Knopf, 1993), Brad Gooch publishes two photographs of the poet taken on board USS Nicholas, the destroyer on which he served during World War II. I don’t know whether the third photograph below has also made it into the literary record, but in any case I’ve photoshopped it to make it a little clearer.

It comes from the ship’s wartime cruise book, a publication formatted exactly like a high school yearbook, including padded covers and a list of home addresses.

This yearbook, however, includes images of the Nicholas under attack and of Japanese and Allied generals on board during the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay. And on page 23 there’s this.

 

Sources: Destroyer History Foundation, http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=44909&pid=44980

and

http://destroyerhistory.org/assets/pdf/449nicholas_wwiicruisebook.pdf