This is the first rifle squad with platoon Lt. Russell and Platoon Sergeant Siverling. The half track is covered with a camouflage cover. Lt. Wallace Russell was a year older than I was. He died in 2000 or so on a trip to Oregon to visit Hinajosa. He has written a response to my poem 50 Years, which was published in the April 1985 edition of the Hellcat News.
This is the same picture as above but without Lt. Russell.
This is the third rifle squad. There were 3 rifle squads, 1 mortar squad, and a machine gun squad in an armored-infantry company, which was different than a regular infantry company. This photo album unfortunately has only 3 of the 5 squads in a group photo- my squad and the 2nd squad is not shown- we were probably not there when Conkling came around with his camera. Its a water cooled machine 30 CA. "heavy" machine gun on the photo behind, though some people call the 50 CA machine gun a "heavy" machine gun- though these were illegal against people (I think) per the Geneva Conventions. They could be used against aircraft and tanks, but got used against people too. The 50 caliber had a big bullet and was unwieldy, it would had to be mounted on a vehicle.
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