hprinze Loc: Central Florida

These are some excellent historical photos

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/03/18/captured-blog-the-pacific-and-ad
jacent-theaters/#more-1547

Brian Devon

Moving photos. My Dad was a sargeant in the army. He was stationed at Hickam Field in Pearl Harbor. He was eating breakfast in the mess hall, Sunday morning, when all hell broke loose on Dec. 7, 1941. He told me how they all fled the mess hall, went outside and dived for the spaces underneath the buildings. Most buildings were on short stilts due to the high water table on Oahu. He told me how the Japanese "zeros" came in very low, strafing everything in site.

He was very good however at keeping things in perspective. When he married my mother, she had a maid of honor who was of Japanese extraction. Later on, in the 80s, they visited Japan and enjoyed their contacts with the locals.

He was proud of his service. He returned to Pearl Harbor many years later and visited the memorial museum dedicated to the people who lost their lives on that fateful day.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

These photos brought tears to my eyes, as my Dad was at many of these battles as a Marine in the 2nd Marine Division. He was only 15 when they hit the beaches of Guadacanal, and 16 (?) when they landed on Tarawa. I will go back, later, when I make the time, and hope to spot him in one of the photos...not expecting to. Yes, he lied about his age, and received his parent's permission. Pearl Harbor motivated him and many others.

Thank you, Hprinze, for posting such a wide variety and number of fascinating pictures. I will view them, repeatedly. This is a gift to many of us whose fathers served in WWII...especially the Pacific campaign.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

BearK Loc: TN

Thank you, I've passed them on to others. To bad they don't show these in schools so kids would know what there grandparents went through for their freedom. When we visited The Pearl Harbor Memorial, I got a chill, as though I could feel the deaths that occurred there.

Snoopy

hprinze

Thank you for the great memories and photos.

They show how great America was and, hopefully, will be again.

Snoopy

leevette Loc: Florida

A memorable and wonderful selection of photographs, I served in New GuineA, Morotai Island and P.I. I wish there was a way that these photos could be shown on facebook so more of today's viewers would see what "war" was like!.
Unfortunately, we Americans have a tendency to "forget" the past far too soon and too quickly!! Thank you for the "memory" lesson!!! L. B. Munn, Ex-U. S. Army Signal Corps. (91 years old and by the grace of God still alive). Chalfont, Pa.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

I salute you, Mr. Leevette! :thumbup:

Keep on trucking, sir! :wink:

hprinze Loc: Central Florida

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I have a friend who is 93. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941 and retired in 1962. He is still active and alert, still flies his single engine airplane. I recently spent some time with him reminiscing about the olden days. I'm just a kid of 83, spent 1947 to 1956 in the USAF . It turns out that we had several common friends and experiences and duty stations during my time.

Veterans of WW II are leaving us fast, God bless every one of you.

BearK Loc: TN

These photos are phenomenal. Today's woman should take a look at these working ladies:

Subject: The Greatest Generation
The greatest generation!!
Back in the mid '70s when working at Hellers Camera in Bethesda Md. , there was a reference book with a color photo of the battleship Pennsylvania in an advanced base sectional dock, somewhere in the Pacific in about 1944. The quality of the photo made it clear that it was shot with a large format camera, which puzzling since it was not thought that Kodachrome (the only modern color film of the time in the US ) was available in sheet films.

An old Kodak hand (and WWII vet, a radioman in Europe) said that they did have sheet Kodachrome, and that there was only one machine to process the film, located in Rochester . The exposed film was sent there for processing.
And note the almost complete lack of basic safety equipment. Only one pair of safety glasses, and only a few of the workers were wearing gloves. Working without gloves around sheet metal is an injury waiting to happen.
Notice most of the woman had lip stick and nail polish on. WWII could not have been won without the woman of America stepping into men's shoes to build the equipment needed to defeat the axis powers.
Fascinating! Some of these images are 70 years old and look as fresh as ever. If someone had told any of the subjects in these photos that we'd have such a clear look at them now, who would have believed it.


http://pavel-kosenko.livejournal.com/303194.html?thread=22669914