US soldiers in WWII

[Sung]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

It must be positively sweltering hot in this guys theater of operations.

Thats cool. Man i wish that crew were women.

The original caption: "Five steward's mates stand at their battle stations, as a gun crew aboard a Coast Guard-manned frigate in the southwest Pacific. On call to general quarters, these Coast Guardsmen man a 20mm AA gun. They are, left to right, James L. Wesley, standing with a clip of shells; L. S. Haywood, firing; William Watson, reporting to bridge by phone from his gun captain's post; William Morton, loading a full clip, assisted by Odis Lane, facing camera across gun barrel." ca. 1941 - ca. 1945 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...-AA-cannon.gif

[Stealhead]

When you get called to stations you get up and go if you cant get your shoes on you just leave them.

Well they are stewards (even though they often performed other tasks unofficially) the one manning 20 mike mike looks like he most likely is one of these and he was probably off duty relaxing in his sandals when the call came.

That photo looks to be late war in 1941 and into 1942 most ships had not yet gone in for their retrofit were they swapped out the water cooled .50 cals for the 20 mm and the 1.1 incher(some times called Chicago Piano) for the 40mm Bofors.That gun also has a later optical sight so that photo was taken in late 1943 up.

[Aktungbby]

Of course, not to be overlooked on a thread dealing with African American mess attendants, is the most highly decorated Mess Attendant third class Doris Miller of Waco Texas. On Dec 7 1941 he was aboard the battleship West Virginia when the Japanese attack started. Reporting to his anti aircraft position and finding it damaged from a torpedo hit, he was assigned to move wounded including the mortally wounded captain. That done, he manned a .50 caliber machine gun which he had never operated and allowed as he had 'got one of the enemy aircraft' as the battleship settled into the mud. He was subsequently awarded the Navy Cross and promoted to Mess Attendant and then to Cook third Class. Subsequently assigned to the Escort carrier Liscombe Bay, He perished in the attack on Makin Island a year later when the ship was torpedoed and exploded with great loss of life. The USS Frigate Miller FF-1091 was named for this hero.