Soldiers don't die

"A man dies only when he is forgotten"

Friday, November 30, 2012

1941 at Fort Jackson, SC

Scans of Mel's photos from basic training at Fort Jackson, SC continued These are from a souvenir photo album he sent home to his parents. They are the only pictures that have captions and are positively dated. These are from 1941 but were developed and printed in 1942.



These are his friends, Pfcs. Otto Kiefer and Ray Westcott. They are the only other men positively identified in his early photos.
















"Bayonet Practice"
Pfc. Mel is wearing a steel doughboy helmet issued early in the war, maybe World War I surplus. He is training with a bolt-action 1903 Springfield. The bayonet is much longer on the old rifles, they were ground down to about half size for use with the M1 Garand to make them also usable as a combat knife.

Mel wearing his brown class 'A' service coat with leather belt. He's standing in front of the barracks.



A small group of men posing for a photograph before loading into trucks for a field exercise. My grandfather is second from the left in the top row. This was a monochrome print that he hand colored.

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