This site is archived

Sorry to say that this site is more of an archive than an active blog.

I have pieced together all the information about my grandfather's Army career that I can, from the meager paper trail that survives. Until I am able to (someday) visit the National Archives in College Park, Maryland and look up more information about his division, battalion and regiment, or maybe uncover some after action reports or battalion journals, this is pretty much all I have.  I could write a letter requesting info from the National Personnel Records Center, but there may not be much there due to the fire in 1973 that destroyed 80% of their WWII records.

 I'm afraid I cannot tell readers of this blog anything more about his role in the war, he was silent his whole life and unfortunately the rest of that story died with him.  So from now on, posts on this site will be sporadic unless I come across some startling new piece of evidence.  I will continue to share his unique photographs and try to explain what is going on in the pictures, but that is pretty much the extent of what I can offer.

Group Portrait from 1941

Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The photo is undated but must be 1941. 'Mel' and his buddies before going out on patrol. Mel is the one in the back standing second from left. They are all wearing World War 1-style helmets.  This photograph is a scanned original monochrome print with silver emulsion, thus the shiny appearance of the shadow areas. He hand-colorized the print. The original measures 8 x 9 3/4 inches.