This is my father (on the left) taken in 1936 when he was 16 years old and an ambulance drive in the Michigan National Guard (he lied about his age and enlisted when he was 15). This picture was taken in Flint, MI, where his ambulance unit had been called-up and deployed during the sit-down strikes at the GM auto plants.
This picture was taken in 1940 when the federal government called-up the National Guard to construct training bases around the country in anticipation of the coming war. It was taken near Alexandria, LA, where they were refurbishing an old Army base named Camp Beauregard. His unit had been called-up for a six-month deployment.
In the spring of 1941 his six-year enlistment in the guard was up, and among other things, he decided to get married. This picture was taken on my parent's honeymoon in May, 1941 (she was 19 and he was 21 years old). Despite the name on the cabin, they were actually in Holland, MICHIGAN,
Note that when the war started in Dec, 1941, his guard unit was called-up but because he had not reenlisted and since his obligation had been fulfilled, he was not part of the activation. However, he felt bad because all his friends were going and he was at home. He had a good job which exempted him from the draft, he was a welder in a boiler factory. But he just couldn't stand the idea that his friends had all gone, so in the Spring of 1942 he enlisted in the regular Army and since he already had six years of service to his credit, he asked for and was given an immediate overseas assignment, and since he could also drive large trucks, he was assigned to the Quartermasters Corp,
And this picture was taken in 1945, after the war had ended and my father was on his way home from the Middle-East where he had served for nearly three years in Persia (now Iran) in the Army Quartermaster Corp where they hauled supplies to the Russians across the Persian desert to the Armenia border. This picture was taken while he and some of his Army buddies were driving up from Florida to Michigan just before they were to be discharged. Note that the camera that my father is holding is one that he carried throughout the war and I still have it in my collection of old cameras. I've never taken any pictures with it, but it appears to be in working order.
OCU
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