I've mentioned him frequently enough that I thought some of you might like to see some pics of the WWII Marine who was my father.


Here's dad as he looked just before shipping out for Guadalcanal. These kind of pictures were called "the final photograph" in those days in the belief that it was likely to be the last image of the individual the family would have.



And here he is having a rare good time with some buddies and some New Zealand wildlife Dad's on the left.

Great pictures.

The 2nd picture may be why WWII Marines called their corpsmen "shank mechanics."

Great pictures.

Huh, Zucchini? I believe you're thinking the expression means something else. "Shank" means your legs so I would gather that expression refers to the corpsmen treating those with legs for transport rather than wheels. "Shank" is an old expression and you may be confusing it with a newer word. In these parts old expressions die hard. Here, traveling by "shank's mare" still means you walked some place.

ah US marines and Kiwi girls, i bet if anyof the kiwi troops in North africa & italy had seen those, they'd be on a boat back home....even if they had to row it themselves!

Looking very suave in his blues 8)

How old was he when he went?

Yeah how old was he? Great pictures though, thanks for sharing.

a handsome git, now wonder all the kiwi girls are around him...

Those WWII Marines, it always seemed to me had a helluva a lot more panache then any others. Nice Pic's Charge 7.

Here is a story of one Marine's "rite of passage" on New Zealand:

http://www.sihope.com/~tipi/chap11.html