The family of the late Raymond D. (1922-2008) and Mary E. (1926-2017) Mullins has donated items related to his World War II service as a U.S. Marine to the Lucas County Historical Society and as I was doing a prelminary pre-accession sort Monday, I was struck especially by these two images.
Raymond enlisted in the Marines during late 1943 and left Lucas County for basic training during January, 1944, headed for the Marine Corps Recruit Training Center in San Diego. Marine recruits who lived west of the Mississippi River were trained here and it was a remarkably busy place during World War II, accommodating up to 18,000 enlistees in one record-breaking month during that war.
After training, Pvt. Mullins was assigned as a guard to the newly-commissioned USS General Harry Taylor, a Navy troop transport, and served aboard for the duration of the war in both the Asiatic-Pacific and Europe-Africa-Middle East theaters of operation. Honorably discharged a corporal during 1946, the same year his ship was decommissioned by the Navy and transferred to the U.S. Army Transport Service as the USAT General Harry Taylor, Raymond came home to Iowa, married Mary E. Hesselgesser and they raised their family in and near Lucas County.
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| The USS General Harry Taylor in New York harbor, 1945, transporting troops home from Europe (AP Photo). |
The first photo --- of Mr. Mullins looking not unlike a movie star --- is stamped USMC "Official Photograph" and, secondarily, "Public Relations Section, C.R.D." so most likely was taken as part of a public relations effort.
The second photo most likely is the graduation photograph of his training platoon in San Diego. Raymond is not identified, but I believe he is sixth from right in the back row. Eleven of the men are identified by number, apparently in their own handwriting, and these may have been friends. The are: 1. Ernest C. Burdick, Des Moines; 2. Lloyd K. George, Corydon; 3. Willis C. Yeager, Rock Lake, North Dakota; 4. Albert LeRoy Milner, Des Moines; 5. Gene A. Pfentzel, Rockford; 6. Dale Laverne Smith, Humeston; 7. Delbert A. Booth, Portland, Oregon; 8. Gurley R. Wilkie, Corydon; 9. Howard W. Polson, Des Moines; 10. Richard K. Shults, Des Moines, and 11. Ronald J. (looks like) Asseth, Newman, California.
Mr. Mullins' uniform jacket also was included in the donation and will be placed on display in due course along with many others previous given. The gratifying thing about all of the related photographs and other material that is part of the Mullins accession is that future generations will be able to see and to an extent know the young man who wore it.
1 comment:
Interesting photos which recall some memories of my past. The platoon photo is interesting in that the platoon leader was a corporal and the two other DI were PFC. 16 years later when I had the same type of photo our platoon leader was a Gunnery Sargent and the two DI's were Staff Sargent's. We also had the M1 rifle as they show in the picture and as rifle training was incorporated within the twelve weeks of basic we spent three weeks for rifle training at Camp Mathews, which was some miles north of San Diego. During that time we were also in tents but in San Diego we were housed in Quonset huts. Great you have a story to go with the artifacts.
norm
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