remembering

Today is Memorial Day in the United States of America, a day originally named Decoration Day, set aside to remember those who died in the American Civil War.  We now remember all who died in conflict - declared or undeclared, foreign or domestic.  Men from four different conflicts are shown here.

The first is most likely my great, great grandfather who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.  This scan of a tin type was similar to many that were shot by the burgeoning legions of photographers.

Frederick Rockingham was Fred's grandfather and part of the 62nd C. A. C. (Coast Artillery Corps) during World War I.  He served in France in 1918 near the end of the war.

Although this photograph was taken outside Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, during World War II, Alan Dale Douglas, my father, was later stationed in Deming, New Mexico, where he was an air traffic controller for the Army Air Corps.

The last in this series is a photograph of a rather less-scrubbed group of lads in the Helicopter Combat Squadron 5 (HC-5), Chauvenet Detachment, South China Sea, 1972, Vietnam Era.  My guess would be that, unlike the people in the first three images, most of these men are still among the living.  Does the crew chief on the far right look familiar?

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image