[Servicemen preparing aircraft for launch]

Photograph of U.S. Navy servicemen preparing aircraft for launch, USS Essex (CV-9), circa 1944-1945. A tanker ship is visible in the background.

Inscription on verso: "Essex catapulting fighters and being refueld [sic] by tanker at same time / 1944-1945."

Part of a disassembled album containing materials related to Paul J. Madden's service with the U.S. Navy during World War II, circa 1940-1945.