I especially like the empty pack of Luckys and the spare clip on the sling.

Where did you find the photo?

Found it on the Northeast Shooters website.

We are an embattled minority, but sometimes come up with some good stuff!

Great pic!

Great Pic!

There is another pic out there where a GI is in the snow and surrounded by a bunch of dead Germans. I like that one too.

MR

That's a great photo!

I see where we may be doubling our forces in Afghanistan. I have paid little notice to that war until I saw the photos, attached. They will open your eyes to the job our young men and women are doing over there.

http://www.boston.com/bigpictu...korengal_valley.html

Ray

Lucky Strike pack in photo....... is that embedded marketing?!!!!

I like the en-block clip on the sling!

Great photo! But just "may" have been staged!

Here's another one, in honor of the cold front currently icing over North America.

Sixty four years ago, in northern Europe, it was really cold.

Those photos represent where the rubber meets the road. No questions , no compromise. A soldier performing his job. Good post.

Taking a second look, the first guy with the M1 has a much too clean uniform. He did not dig or occupy that foxhole for any length of time.

When I first saw this I was a kid and thought this Marine was an old man. Now I am the old man and he is the kid.
The original photo I saw was a full page color photo in a book called "Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic." my mistake it is in the 5th Marine Division campaign book that belonged to my uncle.
The photo is shocking because in color you can see that all the splotches on his fatigues, top and bottom are blood and the bandage around his neck is soaked through with blood. He is holding the piece of shrapnel from his neck.

The Battle of the Bulge was raging some 64 years ago. Cold Wet and lots of snow and fog. The Photo of the Marine, he's maybe 20 and an old man. The Pacific War was a bloody brutal mess, to say the least. I use to take a fellow that fought on that Island to the VA hospital once a month. He never talked much about it, other than while waiting to see the Doc, one day, some of the others younger men asked were were you old timer, he said Iwo jima, they didn't say another word. The drive back for the next hour and half he told me of it. Westley has departed this world some 14 years ago. I only knew him when he was an old man, we belonged to the same lodge, and I was asked take him to the VA one day, what was suppose to be a one time thing, lasted 6 years. I remember once he said while going down to the VA, "It will not be long now" I asked what do you mean by that? He said when you are installed as Master of the lodge!. Well I said, I was Senior Warden at the time, I still have to get elected. You will! Lets stop for Coffee and a donuts. I ate those then, Soon there will only be the photo's they will be all gone. I miss Wes to many of my brothers are no longer here.

I have met many veterans and the brothers of veterans of those islands at gun shows.
Invariably when a guy says his brother was at Iwo Jima or Okinawa the conversation just stops.
The silence always tells the story.

Very sobering posts, gentlemen.

May we never forget.

SR4759

Great photo, but what caught my is that the Marine looks like hell but his rifle is spotless! Just as it should be...a damn good Marine there.

Larry Gibson

quote:

Originally posted by Larry Gibson:
SR4759

Great photo, but what caught my is that the Marine looks like hell but his rifle is spotless! Just as it should be...a damn good Marine there.

Larry Gibson

I pulled out the 5th Marine division campaign book and found the photo in it. The rifle is clean but he is really a mess when it is in color.
I hope that M1 helped him live a long happy life to make up for those that didn't.

Could you post the color pic?

No scanner here but will visit my daughter to day for turkey and use her scanner.

Great photos. In the first photo it is obvious that the soldier has had some experience.

He would appear to have dug his own foxhole because his shovel handle is visible.

He also dug it behind some brush for concealement as well as a rest for his left hand.

5th Marine Division Campaign Book
Bloody Marine holding shrapnel on Iwo Jima

Great photos Keep them coming

quote:

Originally posted by COOL:
Great photos Keep them coming

Check out the Big E photos in Aviation.