Val Carlton Pope was born on July 28, 1919, in Franklin, Simpson County, Kentucky. He was the son of Elbert Carlton Pope and Velma Docia Roark Pope. He was a graduate of Compton (California) Junior College. He served as a combat cameraman with the U.S. Army Signal Corps, assigned to the 162nd Signal Photographic Company. He was among the first combat cameramen to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Armed only with a motion-picture camera, Pope filmed the chaos of the Normandy invasion under heavy enemy fire, including rare footage of U.S. soldiers being rescued from drowning after their landing craft was hit. In the days that followed, he remained at the front lines documenting some of the most iconic scenes of the invasion, facing the same dangers as infantrymen. While searching for a Red Cross aid station in France on August 25, 1944, Pope was ambushed by a German machine-gun team and shot in the head; despite being pulled to safety by fellow soldiers, he died as medics worked to save his life. He is now buried in the Angeles Abbey Memorial Park, Compton, Los Angeles County, California, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com