AboutJohn Expertise Retired US Navy, stationed 10 years in Hawaii. Study of the early years of the Pacific War 1941-42, including the attack on Pearl Harbor. Easy access to actual sites in and around Pearl Harbor. More limited knowledge of general WWII history in the Pacific.
Experience I'm well-read in general WWII history, and spent a lot of off time exploring various military sites on O'ahu.
Education/Credentials I hold a B.A degree from Chaminade University of Honolulu in Historical and Political Studies, Summa cum Laude, earned in 2002.
Can you estimate the year of this sailor's photograph from Farragut NTS? His uniform is different than most I've seen - and if possible, can you identify his weapon? Why is his uniform not the Naval uniform one is used to seeing (with shirt out and regular pants)?
I saw a photo of a man from Farragut in 1943, and his photo was taken in the exact same location as this photo - even where the rivets kind of go up on the right side of the photo.
Answer I was able to find out a little, but not a whole lot.
The photo must have been taken between 1942 and 1946, as those are the only years that Naval Training Station Farragut was in operation.
From Wikipedia:
Ground was broken in March 1942, and by September the base had a population of 55,000, making it the largest city in Idaho. Liberty trains to Spokane ran three times daily. At the time, Farragut was the second-largest naval training center in the world.
Over 293,000 sailors received basic training at Farragut during its 30 months of existence. The last recruit graduated in March 1945 and the facility was decommissioned in June 1946. It was also used as a POW camp; nearly 900 Germans worked as gardeners and maintenance men.
In 1942, Lt. Commander Henry T. McMaster, supervisor of support services at the station, contracted photographer Ross Hall to produce group and portrait photos of all recruits and companies. Operator of a studio in nearby Sandpoint, Hall employed up to 15 workers in creating a photographic archive of more than 300,000 images.
That dates the photo. Now, as to the uniform and weapon. Most likely the weapon was a M1903 Springfield. If you look closely, you can see the bolt operating knob near where the black and white on the sailor's right leg meet. The Springfield was a common training weapon used during WWII
The uniform appears to be the standard service dress blue, or 'crackerjack' uniform, with some modifications. First are the white leggings. They are used to add a bit of formality to the basic uniform, and can be seen often even today on the Ceremonial Guard in D.C. The white belt is a 'duty belt', or 'cartridge belt'.
overall, I think this is a formal graduation photo, so the sailor was dressed in a typical basic training dress uniform. Uniforms are often worn just a bit differently in basic training than in the fleet, and having the jumper tucked in may be one of those small variations.
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