Ok, so about 5 years ago my neighbor passed away at the age of 96. He fought in WWII. He didn’t have any family so I acquired this photo and his cot and wooden cache case that carried his belongings. I would love to find out which soldeir in the photo is him. Would also like to know who the others are. I don’t know what the platoon company is or anything. My family never founght in a war so I am not sure how to read it. Any help would be greatly appriciated.
From what I can find, no one wore campaign hats in WW2. Don’t take my word for it though. Considering they are wearing campaign hats, I’d guess they are doughboys in WW1. I am no expert, but this may not be WW2 at all. Do you know what nationality he was?
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/823/doughboyi.jpg/ That picture seems to match the uniforms, plain, with leg wraps and the campaign hat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/159th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)
That 6 in the middle has thrown me off with the subscript “o”. My guess 6th Battalion of the 159th Regiment, afraid I can’t read that either. But that’s my guess. Maybe the photo is not of him, but his father, or older brother who served in the first world war? Hope this helps.
The photo looks like others I have found referring to the 159th Depot Brigade it looks very much like
24th Company, 6th Battalion, 159th Depot Brigade
They were stationed in Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. The camp was dismantled after WW1 (it had suffered a major influenza epidemic killing hundreds of soldiers in 1918).
A military camp located near Louisville, Camp Taylor, was harder hit than the city itself. This was because the disease tended to strike younger people more aggressively. Enlisted men at the camp totaled approximately 40,000 soldiers. These men were from Kentucky and Indiana. During the week of October 19th, there were 3,772 cases at Camp Taylor alone, which would indicate an extremely high rate of infection.
Could be, a photo of the 6th Battalion, 159th Depot Brigade, 1814-18, as for which one in the photo, is of your neighbour, or the others names, old photos are great, but unless they have writing on them, to tell you, no one will ever know.
