Joe Manhardt retired from his engineering career at Boeing in June of 2020. The following Christmas Eve, he found out he had stage 4 cancer and 18 months to live.
Saturday, Pacific Northwest Naval Museum launched Manhardt’s book, “Naval Air Station Whidbey Island,” featuring 230 pages of photographs of NAS Whidbey-based aircraft, squadrons and operations.
“God blessed me with a full recovery,” Manhardt said. “I’m in remission now, and this is what I did.”
Manhardt was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma, a rare cancer accounting for about 6% of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas. He went through chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
“As I was recovering from that, I would on the good days — not every day was a good day — go through and pull photos and create the artwork and then put it all together,” he said.
Manhardt has loved airplanes since he was a kid, building models and visiting air shows. He picked up photography in high school, earned a mechanical engineering degree in college and eventually went to work for Boeing.
In Everett, Manhardt worked on Boeing’s wide-body aircraft programs, he said. Meanwhile, Manhardt visited Whidbey attending events at the Naval Station. Knowing he was a photographer, his pilot friends invited him to take portraits for change of command transitions.
The new book updates a smaller version released in 2019. The updated title is three times larger and goes much more in depth. Instead of just photos of planes, Manhardt included each type of aircraft and the story behind them, highlighting the police department, fire department, Search and Rescue, maintenance department, air traffic control and others.
“It’s kind of like NASCAR,” he said. “Everybody goes in on the driver, but there’s the pit crew and there’s all the engineers back at the plant where they put the cars together and test it and all that. I wanted to celebrate the planes and the servicemen and women who are behind (them).”
He’s seen what happens behind the scenes firsthand, he said. Twice, walking around base with a camera, aircraft carriers had emergency landings. Manhardt watched as the plane latched onto cables with hooks to slow down.
Most of Manhardt’s photos of aircraft carriers he takes off base, he said. He’s a civilian, and some of his best photos are taken just around Whidbey. The photo that made the book cover, for example, was coincidentally taken by the Pacific Northwest Naval Museum’s future facility on Ault Field Rd.
Saturday’s book launch was a fantastic opportunity to meet people and share his story and the passion of aviation, he said. That’s what it’s all about.
“What I learned through cancer is things that I was really wrapped up about stuff isn’t that important, and what’s important is relationships and just people,” he said. “Appreciate the moment. Appreciate what you’re doing. Appreciate being here. God blessed me with healing me, and now I’m in remission, so I could go do this kind of stuff. Go take more pictures.”
“Navy Air Station Whidbey Island” is available at joemanhardtphotography.com.
“Naval Air Station Whidbey Island” includes photos of aircrafts and the stories behind them, highlighting the police department, fire department, Search and Rescue, maintenance department, air traffic control and others. (Photo by Sam Fletcher)
Photographer Joe Manhardt holds at his books, “Naval Air Station Whidbey Island” and “Naval Outlying Landing Field Coupeville.” (Photo by Sam Fletcher)
