Earle L. "Buddy" Bunker (September 4, 1912 – January 29, 1975) was an American photographer for the Omaha World-Herald and one of the two winners of the 1944 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

[5] In 1937, the Bee ceased publication when William Randolph Hearst sold it to the Omaha World-Herald.

The image captured a World War II soldier who has returned home by train, and the moment that he greets his family.

The soldier in the image, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Moore, had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for leading his battalion against Erwin Rommel's Panzers in North Africa.

Bunker waited over twenty-four hours for Moore's train to reach the station in Villisca, Iowa, so he could take the photograph.