Why Clearwater? - Freedom Magazine Presents The History of Clearwater, Florida Part XI

War

And then, as he described it, the war came. For many, the two world wars were a nightmare. Ogg was one year too young to be conscripted for World War I and one year too old for World War II. But he “did his bit” anyway. When World War II broke out, the Air Corps took over the Biltmore as a training area. The colonel in charge asked Ogg to take a photograph of the first troops arriving.

After the shoot, the colonel called him into his office and said he wanted to fingerprint him. When Ogg asked why, he was told, “As of now, you are the official photographer for the Air Corps, the Marines, the infantry, the Coast Guard and all the military officials in this area. We have checked you out and found that you are probably one man we can fully trust.”

The military even conducted meetings in the back room of Ogg Studios, always with Ogg in attendance. The only FBI office in the state at that time was in Miami, and so the military had a phone line installed that ran directly from Ogg’s back office to the FBI office. He participated in secret work for the Air Corps in Clearwater and the Marines in Dunedin.

It is sometimes curious which memories stick over the years. Ogg remembers that because the Biltmore was constructed in the 1890s, it had no overhead sprinkler system. So the Air Corps took all the doors off the hinges and placed guards on each floor “to make sure the boys didn’t smoke in their rooms.”

While the official photographer for the U.S. forces in the area, Ogg also single-handedly provided the half-dozen local papers and as many international news services with photographs from Pinellas and Hillsborough.

He was the first paid photographer for the Clearwater Sun and also served as staff photographer for the Tampa Tribune, the Tampa Times, the St. Petersburg Independent, the St. Petersburg Times, the Clearwater Times, International News Service, Associated Press, United Press and a “bunch of other outfits.” It was certainly not an idle time.