My father was drafted prior to the beginning of World War II, because everyone knew the United States was going to be in a war. He told us that he went to volunteer at the recruiting station in town, but the men who were already there were such a rough-looking bunch that he decided to wait. So he waited until he was drafted.
He ended up in the artillery, which I think he liked. Probably because of things that go boom. When he first started training in 1941, the Army still had horse-drawn artillery, so he learned to ride a horse. Here he is in uniform, probably at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. He was there at what was known as Camp Carson for a while.
His riding pants here are somewhat different from some other photos I have of him.
Here he is with a fellow soldier at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. They are wearing jodhpurs, with the baggy upper thigh.
In this case I’m sure of the location because the building behind them has a sign that says “Fort Sill Theater.” I cropped that part out.
The man on the left is wearing a dress cap. My father is wearing a garrison cap, which was also known by another less polite term. I like the old Army uniforms better than current uniforms. The boots were pretty cool, too.
Here he is in another shot. This one looks like it was also on the base, probably still at Fort Sill, which was known as the home of the field artillery.
Here he’s probably pretending to do some horsey kind of thing, like cleaning out a horse’s hoof.
They kept horse-drawn artillery long enough for my father to stop biting his fingernails, then switched to motorized artillery. My father used to talk about “high-speed tractors.” I think this is one. I’m pretty sure this photo was taken at the time of someone’s wedding on the base. I think the bride and groom might have been riding on the tractor.
He was transferred out of artillery and into infantry some time after this. He didn’t like the transfer, but it did earn him the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Even though he was in the infantry, he still got to work with cannons, although at a distance. He was a forward observer. He told us that he was able to bring an artilleryman’s viewpoint to the infantry, which tended to use cannons as if they were mortars (he said, with some disdain).
Here is another shot of …
No, wait, that’s me at age three in 1953. I have a vague recollection of this. A man went around the neighborhood with a pony, upon which little boys and girls were placed, with cowboy hats and other cowboy accoutrements. The pony looks pretty bored. I’m pretty sure I have another photo of my brother Henry on the same horse.
As you can probably tell, I’m still going through old photos. I am collecting a batch to send to my nephews. I have one with both of them taking a bath. I haven’t decided which would be more embarrassed. I’m leaning towards Russell, who is married.
Great photos and great memories. My siblings keep up with these kinds of things in my family history.
I love that you have so many photos of your dad in uniform. I think we only have two of my father in uniform from that era.
Paul — I’m the last of my generation, so the photos came to me. I’m going to pass a lot of them to my older nephew, who seems interested in that sort of thing.
Robin — I think he would have stayed in the Army if my mother had been agreeable. As it was he stayed in the Reserves until some time in the late 60’s (I think), when his work at the Post Office kept him from attending the Reserve meetings. He asked for some kind of inactive status, but was denied, so he had to retire.