Mother and Son

I should have put this one up yesterday.  We're supposed to be patriotic on inauguration day, and we do equate the military with patriotism.  Every time I see an image of a soldier with his mother,  I always wonder if he came back alive.

Company A, 31st Infantry, Heavy Weapons Unit

I've said it before and I'm saying it again.  Americans are too patriotic.  It's far too easy to stampede us into stupid, pointless conflicts.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not a pacifist.  Give me a reason to fight that makes sense and I'll support war.  World War 2 being a good example.  But, the fact is that many of our wars have been in the foolish category.  Vietnam, Grenada, the second Iraq War, to name a few from my lifetime, were nothing more than a waste of money and lives.  That doesn't mean we should be callous towards our veterans.  That means, in the future, we shouldn't send so many of them to die for no real reason.

The title of the post is what's written on the back. The 31st infantry was formed at Fort McKinley in the Philippines and has the distinction of spending more time in overseas postings than in the United States.  Postings include the Philippines, Siberia, China, Korea and Vietnam.

Army Ball

The playoffs have started, and once again my Pittsburgh Pirates are on the outside looking in.  In the American League I'm rooting for the Oakland A's.  I like the idea of a World Series champ that's also the team with the second lowest payroll in the game.  In the National League, I'm sort of pulling for the St. Louis Cardinals.  The Pirates may never be a contender because of free agency.  The Cards lost their best player, Albert Pujols, to the far richer Los Angeles Angel, and  it would give me hope if the Cards could get another championship.  I'm torn about the Washington Nationals.  On one hand, I wouldn't mind seeing them win it all because the team has never won anything.  On the other hand, I liked them when they were the Montreal Expos and I hated to see them leave Canada.

No date, names, or location on the photograph, but the third baseman looks to be in a military uniform, so it's another bored soldiers having  fun picture.

Frank Brewer at Camp Gordon

Because of it's proportions, you'll really need to click on the image and bring it up in a bigger window to see it well.

The stamp box on the back is in the middle of the card, so I'm fairly certain that it was designed to be folded in half.  But, while there is a message on the back, there is no post mark and no indication that the card was ever stamped.  I'd bet that Frank Brewer, the author, folded the card in half and put it in an envelope for mailing.

"Dear Mother & Dad,  Yesterday there was 6 of us transfered frome the 24 Co to the 157 Depot Brigade.  Here we get good grub and all we want of it.  The rest of are 24 Co. has gone on a hike with rifel and full pack on.

I had to turn in my rifel and pack.  At this camp we have a snap.

I will write what we half to dew latter.  But I am liber to be transfered in any time in site of 3 months.  Cannot tell.

Tell Atkins my new adress.  I was at the rifel range and done some shuting and they put me down as a good shot. Ther are sending some Co to France in 4 weeks time.

If you write to B.B., C.B. or T.B. tell them my new adress.

Your Sun, Frank.

P.S. Did you get my inshurance papers yet."

In a separate section, Frank wrote his address.

"Mr Frank A. Brewer
31st Co. 8 Training Battalion
157 Depot Brigade
Camp Gordon, Ga."

I always love it when I find someone who spells worse than I do.  Interesting card.  Being sent to France?  But World War 1 or World War 2?  It's almost certain that this card was from the first World War.  Being sent to France was how soldiers described being sent to the trenches of World War 1.  Too, I've also found a web site about a young soldier,  serving at Camp Gordon, in the 157 Depot Brigade, in 1918.

Camp Gordon was opened in July 1917, at Chamblee, Georgia, near Atlanta.  It closed after World War 1, and was reopened in 1940.  It became Fort Gordon in 1957 and now trains more soldiers than any other military facility in the United States.

Stone Mountain may not be the largest rock in the world, as noted on the front of the card, but it is pretty big.  The mile from base to summit notation refers to a trail, not the elevation.  Today, Stone Mountain is the site of the world's largest bas relief, depicting  Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.  The Daughters of the Confederacy and the Ku Klux Klan worked for years to establish the  confederate monument at Stone Mountain, but it wasn't until the 1960s, in reaction to the civil rights movement, after Stone Mountain had become state property,  that the project got off the ground.  In 1915, the Klan was reestablished, and an  easement form the owner was granted that allowed Stone Mountain to be used, in perpetuity, as a Klan rallying point.

And the caption on the back: "STONE MOUNTAIN, 16 MILES FROM ATLANTA, GA.  The steep side of Stone Mountain has been dedicated to the Confederacy by the U.D.C., and thereon will be carved in relief a stupendous monument of Lee and Jackson at the head of the Confederate Hosts.  Each figure will be approximately 30 feet in height: the horses, cannon, etc. as true to life as possible to be made.  Stone Mountain will stand through the ages an everlasting monument to the Boys of the Confederacy.  (Atlanta Convention Bureau.)"

In The Field

File this one under mystery locale.  Had it been taken in the United States, I would think, any field maneuvers would have been on an army base and the local population would have been kept apart from the soldiers.  So where was it shot?  Central America, the Caribbean,  the south Pacific?

The German American Collection, The Album 8

In part 5 there was a dated beer keg, August 5, 1923, and in part 6 there was an older version of the couple pictured in this post. So, what time span can be found in this album? Note the mustache in the first picture. A style that would become popular, in Germany, in the 1930s, but would loose it's appeal in the mid 40s.

Army Mother

Dated "1938/39" not a good time to be the mother of a soldier. But which army? I've been looking at Google picture files, and I'm thinking, maybe, Belgium. Of course, if anyone can give a definite answer, please leave a comment.

Pals

Two affectionate soldiers? I know there's a modern day obsession with with trying to define people by their sexuality, and yes, there is a very good chance that these two soldiers were gay. But it's also possible that they were two men who faced war together and were pals. Pals who have faced death together and have a strong emotional, rather than sexual bond.

The Cut Cadet

Are these military cadets? I think so, but my guess is that it's from a school other than West Point. The big question is why did someone feel the need to cut the photograph in half. One explanation, and the most likely, is that it fit the frame better that way. Then again, maybe the guy in the middle ran off with one of the other guys girlfriend, so cut him right down the middle. A symbolic substitution for doing it in real life. Ouch.

Visiting a Son in the Army-The Baker Family 11

In the 1920s when these photos were most likely taken, there was no G.I. bill of rights. There were no educational benefits, no signing bonus, not much of anything other than a pension after twenty years of service. People joined the army for adventure, or to build a career, or for patriotism, or because of poverty. From what I've seen of the Baker family album, poverty wasn't an issue. So why did this young man join the military? As usual, click on Baker family in the labels section to bring up the whole collection.

July 4

Why do we equate patriotism with war?

Charge With Brass

Fiorello LaGuardia, progressive Republican (Now there's an oxymoron!) mayor of New York City, while born in New York spent most of his childhood in Prescott, Arizona where his father was military bandmaster at nearby Fort Whipple. Before radio, television and the Internet, a talented bandmaster was worth his weight in gold at isolated military outposts. Bored soldiers far from home was not a good combination. Click on musicians in the labels section to bring up a photo of a World War 1, AEF military band as well as shots of small town coronet bands. Printed on postcard stock.

Rifle

If there's one thing I've learned in collecting old photographs it's that there is never a shortage of military themed photos. No later than the World War 1 era, maybe the Spanish American War.

Italian Army

When World War 1 began in November of 1914, Italy was member of the Triple Alliance along with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Italian Parliament declared, that since the alliance was for defensive proposes, and since Germany and the Austrians had been the aggressors, their treaty obligations were not enforceable. In May of 1915, Italy joined the Entente and allied themselves with Great Britain, France and Russia. From 1915 to 1917 the Italian army attacked Austrian forces along their border but were unable to make any significant advances. In 1917, with German help, the Austrian army made a significant counter attack that resulted in the rout of the Italian army at the battle of Caporetto. See A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway for a written description of the retreat. The Italians were able to halt the offensive, but until October of 1918, with Austria on the verge of civil war, they were not able to regain significant territory from the Austrians. In the last few months of the war, the Italian army was finally able to penetrate deep into Austrian territory. Fighting ended between the Italians and the Austrians on November 3, 1918, a week before the signing of a final armistice, ending the war.

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All of these images are printed on postcard stock. The first image is the newest. I'm usually pretty good at deciphering hand writing, but not having any Italian, I'm unable to infer things from context. Normally I wouldn't post the back of a card, but I can only figure out so much, so if anyone out there can give me an accurate translation.... "Col." I'm guessing is an abbreviation for Colonello, Italian for Colonel. That last name may be Rafall, but I can't be sure. I've got "Gioia" figured out, with "Calle" so I'm putting the Colonel on Joy Street in August of 1927. The Colonel and the civilian postcard has an address that I can't make out, and a name, "Giovanni" a last name I can't decipher and "+ moglie" wife. I've put up a number of hand tinted images on this blog, but the last two images are the first before and after pictures that I've been able to post. Written on the back of the tinted version, "Ottobre 6. 1918 Austria" October 6, 1918 Austria. Less than a month to the cease fire.

Women In Uniform

I could probably deploy a fairly effective strike force with all the pictures I have of men in uniform. Women in uniform, however, is a whole other matter. Until corrected, I'm going to assume that this is a World war 2 era WAC-Women's Army Corp. This hand colored portrait is a nice companion piece to my post of 8/19/09, WAVES of the Navy. Click on military women in the labels section to bring it up.

Trench Warfare

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Again, I don't know a lot about commercial printing processes, but I think these are rotogravures. (Click on rotogravure in the labels section for other examples.) I picked up a group of these years ago before the photo lab went under, and I made a few copy negs and then went ahead and made conventional black & white photos from them. The trench shot is captioned, "Taking a look at Jerry. Officers and men of the 18th Inf., 1st Div., in the front line, Ansauville sector, Jan. 20, 1918." The snow picture, "Meanwhile, in the states, training was going forward at top speed. Cold! We'll say it was cold. The day in January 1918, when this picture was taken on the Kishwaukee range, Camp Grant, it was fifteen degrees below zero. These are hardy "Blackhawks" of the 343d Inf., Colonel Charles R. Howland commanding. In training the men of the 172d Brigade to which col. Howland's regiment belonged, Brig. Gen. Charles H. Martin rigorously insisted upon the shooting and discipline demanded by General Pershing. He had the earnest co-operation of his regimental commanders, Col. Howland and Col. Benjamin T. Simmons, and the friends of the brigade claimed that there were no finer soldiers in the National Army than those of the 172d Brigade. The training program never took cognizance of weather conditions. Some surprisingly good scores were made the day this picture was taken. We remember that Major Charles Collette made a perfect score at 700 yards. J.C.R." Unlike in World War 2 when military censorship only applied to facts that could jeopardize on going operations, in World War 1, president Wilson controlled the press and only allowed coverage that was supportive of the war effort. These images seem to be part of a press release. Note that on the trench picture, it's identified as an official photo of the Signal Corps.

Old Soldiers

All I know about these two old, faded (I had to darken these images when I scanned them.) photographs is that they pre-date World War 2. But what I don't know is where they were taken. I really doubt that the soldier with the beret is an American.

Flagler Garden, Miami

Yet another entry in my growing collection of nightclub, souvenir photo folders. (Click on night clubs in the labels section to bring the others up.) Sometimes I can find a lot of information about these old nightclubs, that once catered to an America that liked to go out, listen to big band music, jazz, and to dance the night away. On Flagler Garden, not so much. After entering every combination of words I could think of into the search engine, I came up with just two references. Flagler Garden Apartments, which may or may not have been built at the same location as the club, and a brief reference on a site devoted to defunct ball rooms. They were defining ball rooms as anything from a small club with a 10 x 10 dance floor to the massive halls with space for hundreds of dancers. As far as the photograph goes, it wasn't fixed or washed well. I spent years in photo labs, I notice these things. An interesting contrasts between the two ladies. The blond seems alert and ready for a much longer night. The brunette (Or redhead?) looks like she's ready for bed. The two soldiers and the hairdos put this image in the early to mid forties, probably World War 2. No dates or names were written anywhere on the cover, and there is no address for ordering more photos.

Norman In the Navy

I've been looking at pictures on line, and my best estimate is that Norman is wearing the wool navel blue uniform used from the 1920's to the early 1940's. If anyone out there knows better, leave a comment. Written in the upper left corner, Love, Norman" I lost a bit of the inscription when I cropped out the white boarders.

The Uniform Makes the Man

The crossed rifles on the cap, I think, is infantry. Written on the back, "Vester Lynn."