Gunga, JJ, and Howie's photos

"Believe it or not, this is when I enlisted at the courthouse! They had a guy there taking pictures. This is [Edward] Lykins, he went all the way through with me, and this is John - I can't think of his last name, John Something, he also enlisted with me, and this is Tommy, Tommy was a friend of mine, he came down to bid me farewell. This was taken in October '42, when I left the custom house." - George Smith

PARRIS ISLAND
PLATOON 849, 13th RECRUIT BATTALION
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER, 1942
"Iron Mike" at Parris Island; "In memory of the men of Parris Island who gave their lives in the World War, erected by their comrades."

"I look like a lost soul in this picture." - George Smith

George Smith and JJ Franey on mess duty.

Bob McCabe and JJ Franey

George Smith and JJ Franey.

CAMP LEJEUNE, NEW RIVER, NORTH CAROLINA
COMPANY A, FIRST SEPARATE BATTALION (REINFORCED)
NOVEMBER 1942 - SPRING 1943

"Boot leave. January 31, 1943."

Standing guard.

George Smith and Jeff Jowers outside Hut #10, New River.

Jeff Jowers watches George Smith sneak up on Luther Diehl.

George Smith, David Spohn, Jeff Jowers, Kermit Shaw, and Tom Hurley (sitting).

"They were teaching us knife fighting, and [the walls] were like cardboard, it was great for throwing knives. The whole goddamn back of the hut was full of holes." - George Smith

George Smith.

JJ Franey.

Franey.

Luther Diehl, David Spohn, Jeff Jowers, and George Smith.

JJ Franey, George Smith, Howie Haff, and Howard Kerr. "Mother" Geesaman peeking through the door.

Howie Haff, George Smith, Bartholomew Wangaitis, David Spohn, Howard Kerr, JJ Franey.

A "desperate guy."


Climbing down the "mock-up" to simulate debarking from a ship.


Howie Haff and George Smith.

JJ Franey with M1 and fixed bayonet.

CAMP PENDLETON, CALIFORNIA
ABLE COMPANY, 24th MARINES, 4th MARINE DIVISION

"This is Tiny Jowers... when we got to Pendleton, we pulled in there on the train late Saturday night and they told us on Sunday morning just to get the lay of the land. The Third Division had been at Pendleton, but they had been out of there several months, so as a result all this animal life regenerated itself, and there must have been literally a thousand snakes, and that morning when we're walking around, this guy, this is one of the thousands! And I'm petrified of snakes, still am, but at any rate I took that picture and that's as close as I ever got to one. Them suckers, every time we were playing around in the bush I was petrified because I just don't like 'em." - George Smith

Outside Able Company's barracks building.

Franey.

George Smith.

Howie Haff.

George Smith, Tom Johnson, JJ Franey, Howie Haff.

"When we had nothing else to do, we took pictures."
George Smith, JJ Franey, Howard Kerr, Tom Hurley, Tom Johnson.

Back Row: George Hall, David Spohn, Howard Kerr
Middle Row: Tom Johnson, Tom Hurley, JJ Franey, George Smith
Front: Amedeo Izzo
Haff, Hurley, Johnson, Izzo, Franey, Spohn, and Hall
"Larson coulda played Mr. USA, he was really built, that kid."
Raymond Davis.
Davis and Harold Fritz.
"Mr Reynolds and Fritz"
Henry Doxtator, Lawrence Kincaid, Harold Fritz, Ronald Palmer.

Corpsman Charles Hearn, George Hall, Harold Fritz, Ronald Palmer, David Spohn.

George Hall, Henry Doxtator, John Svoboda, Robert Palmer, Harold Fritz.
David Spohn, Harold Fritz, Ronald Palmer, Raymond Davis, George Hall, Donald Hart.

Ronald Palmer, Harold Fritz, Jeff "Tiny" Jowers.
George Smith scrubbing laundry, 1943.


George Smith and Dalton Young wring out their laundry.

Howie Haff, Tom Hurley, Tom Johnson, Amedeo Izzo, JJ Franey, David Spohn, George Hall.

TENT CAMP, PENDLETON, 1943

"Lt. Endecott Osgood giving First Platoon 'the Word'"

"Thomas, Davis, and Smitty (mailman)"

Thomas McCay gives Amedeo Izzo a shave. Gunnery Sergeant Walter Russell and Howie Haff watch.

Ezra Skolfield.

Izzo vs Jowers

Izzo and Ksiekievicz in the creek.

Sergeants Parker McBride and Walter Russell.

Amedeo Izzo

JJ Franey and Howie Haff clowning around.

"Able Company crapped out."

Gunnery Sergeant Walter Russell.

The machine gun section.
3rd Row: Luther Diehl, Lester Kincaid, Raymond Jordan, Merle Geesaman, David Spohn
2nd Row: Tom Hurley, Jeff Jowers, George Smith, George Hall, Howard Kerr
1st Row: Frank Tucker, Kenneth Gann, Norman Reber, Amedeo Izzo, Virgil Cawood, Richard Grosch.

Tom Hurley's squad. Clockwise from top: Hurley, George Hall, Howard Kerr, George Smith, Jeff Jowers.
George Hall and Tom Hurley.

"After a raid." JJ Franey, Tom Hurley, Leo Ksiekievicz

Claude Henderson, Leo Ksiekievicz, Bill Imm, Wilbur Plitt, Edward Hackett.

Frank Gosiewski, "Taxi" Wanagaitis, Leo Ksiekievicz, JJ Franey.

MESS DUTY, CAMP PENDLETON. AUGUST 1943.

"Hufnage and Imm lizard hunting."

"I dunno where the hell they got the hats." JJ Franey, Thomas McCay, Donald Hart, Robert Williams, Bill Imm

"Imm, Hart, Williams, McCay & Franey vs. Colburn."

"Franey and Imm."

Thomas McCay attempts surgery on JJ Franey.
Imm in the kitchen.

"Chow line - note watermelon. Pendleton, '43."

JJ Franey at chow time.


"Getting ready for the smoker. [James] Coburn, [Robert] Williams, [John] Yonkers."

"Bob Williams walloping pots."

"Oooh, those #!&% pots! Note the look of disgust."
"Franey's least favorite duty!" - George Smith

Raymond Davis, near the kitchen Able Company set up in the creekbed.

CALIFORNIA

Rubber boat training, Aliso Beach, November 1943.

Chow line, Aliso Beach.

"There's the Mafia!"
Amedeo Izzo, Aliso Beach.

"PRIVATE HOPKINS TAKES AIM: The man behind the M1 is Marine Private Stephen P. Hopkins, son of Harry L. Hopkins, special adviser to President Roosevelt. Private Hopkins is in "boot" training at Parris Island, S. C. He had been a radio publicity man for CBS in New York City prior to enlistment."

"The 24th Marines Band on the set of Song of Bernadette."

Howie Haff and George Smith ham it up for the camera while on liberty.

"This is Haff and me down in Tijuana! We enjoyed ourselves... we had a good time. Haff, to look at him there you would think he was somewhat somber, but he was a great guy." - George Smith

Kenneth Gann, George Smith, "Mother" Geesaman on liberty in Los Angeles.

Claude Henderson, mortar section.

JJ Franey, Anne Hurley, and George Smith. August, 1943. "Hurley was married. That's Anne, his wife.... When we got California she said she was coming out, and Hurley said we had to find a place for her. Well, he and I went out, started Friday night and we went all over Oceanside trying, as much as we could - we didn't have a car -trying to find a place, and we couldn't find one. Saturday night we came back to the barracks. Didn't get back til late. Sunday morning he wakes me up and says Anne's in town. She came cross country by bus, went to LA, got the train from LA down to Oceanside. We hustle up, go in, I said "Where the hell are we gonna stay?" Again she does the same thing, she goes around, she finally found a motel for a couple days. [Eventually she found] a two room cabin, had a little kitchen, it was a tourist thing where people would pull in for the night, at any rate she made friends with the people that ran the place, they had a trailer there that had a Marine and his wife but it had two bedrooms so the people that owned the place convinced the people that were in there to let Anne and Tom share the trailer and eventually they got one of these little cabins. What would happen was we would go on liberty Friday night and Franey and I would stop at the grocery store to buy what we could, including meat. We would drop it off at Hurley's, we would go up to LA and come back Sunday afternoon, Sunday night she would have a dinner for us, that's what kept us civil down there!" - George Smith

"This is the guy and his wife that had the trailer that they first moved into, he had been in the Corps for a while, you know, before the war."

Tom Hurley, JJ Franey, George Smith.

JJ and Gunga.

MAUI, SPRING 1944

"That's the only picture I have of Maui. When we went out they told us no cameras, and most guys adhered to it, but a couple of them, they put 'em in the gas mask case because we had one guy, always carried his gas mask and everybody'd say "What the hell's he doing, why's he carrying that?" and here the sucker had his camera in it." - George Smith

The photograph shows Captain Schechter's tent; the sign to the right says "C.O. CO A 1Bn 24th Mar."

George Smith, Peter Colombo, Francis Munski (corpsman) and Edward Horan. Taken at a souvenir photography establishment, 1944.

"Mortar Section, A Co, 1st Bn, 24th - 4th Division. Maui, April 1944."

Third Row: Claude Henderson, Leo Ksiekievicz, JJ Franey, Tom Johnson, John Czepiel
Second Row: Wilbur Plitt, Edward Hackett, Donald Peters, (unknown), Bartholomew Wanagaitis, (unknown), Ronald Bartels
First Row: Howie Haff, Edward Lykins, Frank Gosiewski, Ronald Palmer, Joe Roff, William Imm
MISSING: Arthur Ervin, Philip Wood, Kenneth Shea, Dale Owings

Able Company on August 5, 1944, after the battle of Tinian.

CONVALESCENT CAMP, OAHU. NOVEMBER 1944

George Smith after his acceptance to the convalescent camp. November 1944. "The first time I got out of the hospital, I was a little wifty and they sent me to a rest camp...."

The camp was a converted YWCA facility in the town of Kokokahi, on the island of Oahu. Recovering Marines would gather by the gate to throw rocks at trucks carrying Italian prisoners of war.

"This is my area, my hut is on the left. What a place! November 10, 1944"

"Mess hall."


"Looking at the camp from the end of the 1,200 foot pier."

LUALUALEI NAVAL AMMUNITION DEPOT GUARD DUTY. 1945.

"That's a picture of Maude... I'll never forget that sucker. It was funny, you know, they had this stable but they only had I guess about six stalls in there, so with all the horses they just had this corral. When we were going on at 4 o'clock in the morning, you had to go out there, you had to chase your horse down, get that sucker! And they were rolling, this was sand, then you had to clean 'em off... four o'clock in the morning and you're out there playing with those suckers. But anyway, it was fun."

"These pictures were taken for the Pacific issue of Leatherneck, and that's me. And the horse's name... what the hell was her name, it was a female, a mare.... and the rough ride you got with her you had to kick her all around the thing. But anyway, the ammunition depot had been a large ranch and when the Navy took it over they made it an ammunition depot, and it was just this big vast area, the only thing that... you wouldn't really see them because they were covered with dirt and brush, were what they called igloos where they stored the ammunition. They were concrete bunkers and they put dirt and everything over them, and it was a hard way to patrol so the horses came into play, that's why we had horses there."

President Roosevelt's death is announced; the Marines at Lualualei hold a memorial parade.

"Waianae Gate, Lualualei. September, 1945. 'Cobbler Inn,' our shack."

AFTER THE WAR

George Smith, Harry Hufnagle, two unknown staff sergeants, Tom Hurley, and Robert Larson, 1945.

"This was our liberty when we first came back to LA. These three were cooks. Back then the Marine Corps was divided into line and staff. Believe it or not, it was like the Army and Navy fighting, we viewed staff people like they were inferior. I know I'm exaggerating but really there was a lot of animosity, because there were, we have rockers now [on shoulder insignia, curved vs straight], and the line people always had rockers underneath, staff people had straight bars. When I made staff sergeant, which is what it was called at the time, I told everybody "don't call me staff sergeant, call me platoon sergeant," that's how bad it carried over. Larson, great guy, tough kid. And Hurley, him and I stayed close until he died. The Haywood Hotel in LA, I'll never forget that, they threw us out of there a couple times."


"This was Stafford, "Cease" we called him, he was my assistant gunner most of the time. When I got hit, he got hit also, he got hit between the elbow and the shoulder with an explosive bullet, and it literally took bone. The only thing was holding his arm on was some skin on the inner side. They sent him to Philadelphia - now this is in like '44 or '45 - they inserted bone and saved his arm. That's Doris, before we were married - he stopped to see her while he was still in the hospital. But what I'm saying, this was back in '44, nobody ever heard about putting artificial bone in, you know, repairing an arm."
Sergeant George Smith, recalled to duty for the Korean War.