Posted on 11/15/2010 8:08:42 PM PST by rlmorel
I was at my in-laws some time ago, and they brought out a bunch of boxes with images in them. We were looking over the family pictures, and I saw this small stack wrapped in brown paper. When I opened it, I found prints of the six images below. When I asked my mother-in-law where they came from, she said that she had worked at a drugstore in East Boston as a teenager in the mid to late forties. People brought film in to be developed all the time, and never came back to pick it up. They held onto some of them for years before they threw them out. She said she grabbed them with a bunch of other pictures as they were being thrown in the trash during an long-needed cleanup at the store. These were prints from what were probably original negatives I would guess.
What I found most interesting was the surrender scene. All this time I had it, I just assumed it was another angle from the Missouri Surrender ceremony, but when you really look at it, it isn't. There are no civilians, the weather is wrong and the ship looks older than the Missouri. Has anyone ever seen any of these images? Comments? I am very well versed on WWII history particularly in the Pacific Theater, and I don't recall ever seeing these pictures in any books I have ever read.
The typhoon pic is wild.You can see that the last Avenger that is tied down has broken loose and will be going over the side shortly.The one bird engulfed in flames is a Hellcat and all sea blue in color dates it to mid,late 44 through the end of the war and into post war.Very cool pictures BTW.Makes you wonder how many pictures of the war have been thrown out by uncaring relatives since.
My girlfriend’s father’s Uncle was a flight surgeon on the Enterprise. He returned to his Doctor’s practice in Troy, NY after the war. Is your Uncle still alive? Where was he from? I wonder if they knew each other?
Halsey was judged negligent for not allowing his task force to flee oncoming Cyclones; twice! Dozen of ships sank and hundreds of sailors drown. The entire story was hushed up because of his ‘hero’ status. Between two cyclones and Leyte Gulf, Halsey should have been drummed out of the US Navy. My Dad was at Iwo Jima and got hit by the first cyclone, which almost sunk his DE. To this day he wouldn’t get in a row boat.
I’ve seen the photo of the Hellcat on fire before.
One of my clients, now deceased, was on a destroyer in Halsey’s task force during the typhoons. He gave me his copy of the Book, “Halsey’s Typhoon”. He said that he thought he was going to die each time. Unfortunately, some of his friends did.
bookmarked. thanks.
Great thread!
It’s a breeches buoy.
Everybody knows that’s Hirohito signing the surrender.
My Dad (passed) retired as a Naval Aviator and I was telling him one time about when I was doing maintenance for apartment blocks where a retired Marine Lt. Col was manager back when the internet was established but still new to some and this semi-sweet hardheaded Lt. Col asked me to show him how to search and use the net with his computer and new internet connection. I hooked it up.
He didn’t want e-mail, wife was to take care of that, so got him linked and running on a browser/search page and turn to him and said, “You can look up anything you can think of now, what would you like to do as your first search ever?” There was only a slight pause and he said two words, “Iwo Jima.”
I typed it in and clicked on the first hit on top of the page which was, like most of the Iwo Jima sites, a remembrance or memorial started by a survivor and frequented by survivors. He seemed a bit taken back by a well done homepage with its American flags on either side of (if I recalled correctly) a short prayer. Maybe he was just surprised that he wasn’t only one recalling the past but he wanted to view the site later and I bookmarked it showing him how to get back to the site and he thanked me.
My Dad understood all to well.
“It’s a breeches buoy.”
Yup!
You are welcome...I know there are a lot of Freepers who would appreciate these.
Second pic shows the escort carrier USS Nehenta Bay (CVE-74).
Thanks for posting these.
That is a telling story. I would think that before the advent of the Internet, most of these guys wouldn’t take the time to look back.
Imagine experiencing something like Iwo Jima first hand, surviving, and then likely thinking about it every single day for the rest of your life. All that time, you never go more than reading something in the paper or seeing something on television. You don’t really talk to anyone about it.
Then, one day, you discover the Internet. Someone shows you how to do a search, and the next thing you know, there is a blank white rectangle with a blinking cursor in it, staring you in the face, just waiting to bring you information at your request. Whatever you want to learn about.
Nobody to talk to. Nobody you have to call. Nobody who is going to ask you why you are looking it up.
Not surprising, the first thing you would likely type would be “Iwo Jima”.
No. If you look closely, you’ll see a stripe in the white bars of the US aircraft insignia. The means post-WW2.
Then, after typing in "Iwo Jima" and hitting the enter button, he is presented with the following links: "The Hot Girls of Iwo Jima", "They call me Iwo Jima, click here to see my pictures..."
Only kidding...kind of.
Great research...that ties it together pretty well! Good job...
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