|
Caption:
Survivors Medical Detachment 124th Inf 31st Div
Activated Oro Bay Apr 5th 1944
First Combat Aitape New Guinea July 1944
There are 49 GIs in this photo. Back Row (left to right):
Wilbert Veit, Robert J. Abadie, Robert E. Hobson, Leonard Neal, James
A. "Al" Holloway, Charles Winfield, (unknown), (unknown), Kermit
Foles, Ralph Kelland, 1st Sgt Barnes, Clarence McClain, (unknown),
Art Levering, (unknown), Gilbert Campbell, Gerald Fried, Berg,
(unknown), Trelvie Collum, Murphy, William F. "Willie Fred"
Montgomery, Clothel "CC" Dulaney, John Seitz, Art Barry, Ernest
Bennett, Lewis B. Kelly, Robert A. Lee, John O'Connor, C.A. "Bunk"
Lewis, and Lindsey (name uncertain).
Front Row (left to right):
Lyle Harvey, Neil McLeod, L.H. "Casey" Keele, John "Rock" Biernett,
Bertel Luke, Raymond Roach, Eric Murrah, (unknown), Dr. Giandomenico
(aka "Dr. DeeJohn"), Hosie Smith, Richard "Scooter" Edwards, Edward
A. St. Germain, Arthur G. "Guy" Black, (unknown), William M. Prather,
Allen Purdy, Ernest Smith, Roger B., and "Hound Dog" Smith.
Credit:
Far East Photo News
300 W Jefferson
Springfield, Ill.
I found this photograph at the home of Mr. Raymond L. (Ray) Roach in
Starkville, Mississippi on Friday, 7 October 2005. I flew to
Starkville on 6 October to attend the annual reunion of the 124th
Infantry Regiment Medics. Ray Roach, one of Tom Deas' medics, met me
at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport (GTR) and drove me to the
Holiday Inn Express in Starkville. On the morning of 7 October,
before the other folks arrived, Ray drove me to his home in
Starkville to demonstrate his hammer dulcimer. While there, he showed
me his Ham Shack in the back yard. (Ham Shack=Radio
Room of an Amateur Radio operator). I looked up and admired his
tower and beam antenna. It looked like the tower and yagi antenna
that my older brother and I helped our father erect in 1964. We
entered the ham shack, and Ray switched on a transceiver and tuned
through one of the Amateur bands. It was quiet. Then he showed me
around the ham shack. He pointed to a framed photo that was hanging
on the back wall (the photo above). He said that it was taken at Camp
Stoneman, California (near San Francisco) in December 1945, after the
124th Infantry Regiment had returned to the States. Soon after this
photo was taken, the men split up and traveled by troop train to
bases near their homes. Many of them traveled to Camp Shelby in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Ray told me that he traveled in a 1918
coach that had no sleeping berths.
Ten veterans attended the reunion in October 2005: Tom Deas, Art
Barry, Arthur "Guy" Black, Gilbert Campbell, Clothel "CC" Dulaney,
Lewis Kelly, Delphia "DJ" Laborde, C.A. "Bunk" Lewis, Raymond Roach,
and Herb Thurston. I asked these men to identify the men in the
photo. The names above are from their memories. Seven men in the
photo are unknown and the identity of Lindsey (back row, far
right) is uncertain.
Some of the survivors of the 124th Infantry Regiment Medics returned
home before December 1945 and are not in this photo. For example,
Regimental Surgeon Dr. Thomas Malcolm Deas left the Philippines for
the States on 25 August 1945. Herb Thurston received orders to return
home in early August 1945, and was discharged at Camp Blanding,
Florida, on 15 October 1945.
(Photo courtesy of Raymond L. Roach)
|
