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1943. "South America. U.S. Army Air Transport Command pilot being awakened to receive orders." No rest for the weary, including Lt. Sidney Tannenbaum. 4x5 acetate negative by David Eisendrath, Office of War Information. View full size.
The Air Transport Command was the supply line during the war. Replacement combat aircraft and supplies were flown south to bases in South America, then across the Atlantic to Africa and from there to the Far East. U.S. airlines, Eastern, American, Pan Am, etc., also provided transport aircraft, crews and base personnel. My father was with Eastern Airlines at Natal and Belem, Brazil.
It is a butt can, an ash tray of sorts. It was about half full of water and you used it to douse cigarettes in. Sometimes sand was used, most of the time it was water. Crude, but effective for a raw wood barracks. This was still in use in the 50's.
We owe so much to the folks who served to protect our freedom that it is almost impossible to put into words of how we should feel now.
For the information on Lt. Tannenbaum. I know right where that cemetery is on Cave Creek Road in Phoenix.
The Lieutenant must have flown a lot during the war as his hat indicates a strong "50 mission crush."
God bless him and all the other guys who fought in WWII for us.
[Not sure how much fighting a pilot in South America would have done. - Dave]
The one that gets the bugler up.
Methinks he doth play possum! His face looks like he is wide awake, and trying to look cute. He's not doing too bad a job of it, either!
Any informed guesses as to what that can is for? My uninformed guesses include spittoon, ashtray, fire-dousing sand, chamberpot.
"Hey, why'd ya hafta wake me up? I was just about to kiss Betty Grable!"
Died June 20, 2002, 81 years old. Buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix.
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