My brother Greg found this photo in a book he's reading, which he got from my Dad. We don't believe Dad read the book, which was a gift to him, but we think the conductor in this photo could be Dad -- middle of photo, with pith helmet. Looks like him.
From Greg's email:
I've been reading a book about the Solomons campaign. I knew that Dad was on Guadalcanal, and I knew that that island had been declared secure before he got there (They were married in Jan of '43 and he left shortly after so I peg his arrival about March). As I got older I always assumed that Dad was just repeating stories he heard from the veterans of the fighting on Guadalcanal (like the one about 'Washing Machine Charlie').What I hadn't realized is that there was fierce fighting all the way up the island chain through '43 and '44. Guadalcanal got the press because it was the first, but there were many bloody battles after that. A lot of the names of these islands bring back memories of his stories. Rendova, Vela Lavella, Bougainville and Espritu Santo are just a couple of names that I remember. Now I wish I'd talked to him more about his experiences.....
By the way, Dad rarely talked to me about the war either after I had grown. The only thing he told me once was that he had to act as a machine gunner on a plane and strafe barges the Japanese were using to reinforce the islands. The barges were full of troops and he got really emotional describing it, so I didn't press it. As I said earlier I doubted that there was much combat after he arrived over there but now I know better. Did he really do this? Well, he was attached to the First Marine Air Wing (which flew planes duh!) and being a musician wasn't exactly a full time job so it's not unlikely that he could've been pressed into service like this.
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