New Guinea - WWII series

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Ray Downs posing with two army buddies and two New Guinea helpers

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A native hut in New Guinea 

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Posing with some New Guinea natives

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 David Rubin and Andy Grozdanoff

Friends at Camp Grant, Illinois

Graduating class from the Sanitation Technicians School
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Ray Downs and Lee Mecham
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Ray Downs and Lee Mecham
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Camp Grant Illinois
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I'm pretty sure this is the cutest soldier in WWII or any war since.  The first photo is of Ray Downs saluting.  The second photo is when he graduated from the Sanitation Technicians School and the 3rd image is of his graduation certificate.  All three of these images are from August 1942.

I know that good sanitation was very important while they were out fighting but I think I would have been really ticked if I had been drafted into the army and then given that assignment. (Just sayin')

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San Fabian - Town being liberated in the Philippines

This photo was taken in 1944, after the American army liberated the town of San Fabian.

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LDS soldiers in New Guinea are organized

I love to see that even during the war, soldiers joined together to worship.  I can't even imagine what comfort it was to these soldiers to be able to still go to church, even in the horrible conditions that they were in.

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Ray J. Downs is on the 2nd row from the front, 2nd from the left.

Entering town during invasion in Philippines

This photo was taken in January of 1944. 

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Company C - 31st Medical Training Battalion - Camp Grant, Illinois

I am so excited for this next series of posts.  I am currently archiving a large personal collection of World War II photographs.  There are some that are very disturbing that I won't be showing here but the rest I find really interesting and I hope that you will enjoy them as well.

This photograph is from 1942.  It is of half of Company C - 31st Medical Training Battalion - Camp Grant, Illinos.  The other half of the photograph is cut off and tucked behind this photo but adhesive stickers were used to attach it face down on the scrapbook paper so I can't get it off without damaging it.

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