Mickey Rooney Photo

[ww2vault]

Hi,

 

I bought this photo of Mickey Rooney playing the drums in some regiment band. He seems to be enjoying himself and as far as I can tell the photo seems to be the original and not a copy of the original. You can clearly see the SSI on the soldiers, I was trying to make out the DUI's on their collars though.

 

- Jeff

[Wailuna]

...Mickey Rooney playing the drums in some regiment band. He seems to be enjoying himself and as far as I can tell the photo seems to be the original and not a copy of the original. You can clearly see the SSI on the soldiers, I was trying to make out the DUI's on their collars though....

Great picture, Jeff!

 

The SSI looks like I Corps, which in the context of this picture, was activated November 1, 1940, at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, and redesignated I Army Corps January 1, 1941 (U.S. Army Corps are designated using Roman numerals but are referred to using the corresponding ordinal number: I Corps is pronounced as "First Corps" and often unofficially called "eye" Corps). In any case, the uniforms the soldiers are wearing are consistent with 1940/41.

 

I can't make out the DI, but notice that some of the bandsmen are wearing unofficial band chevrons incorporating the lyre symbol underneath the stripes, which proliferated in the interwar period (until about 1942, according to Emerson). Look at the DIs under strong magnification: I you can make out details, you should be able enlarge that area so we can see it too. If the magnified DIs are still blurred, you are out of luck using them for direct identification.

 

Here is a station list for Hqs. I Army Corps and units at Camp Jackson as of December 7, 1941 (Note that most of these are divisional units, which would not be wear the Corps patch):

 

I Army Corps

8th Infantry Division

13th Infantry Regiment

28th Infantry Regiment

121st Infantry Regiment Georgia National Guard

28th Field Artillery (155mm)(Tractor Drawn) Battalion

43rd Field Artillery (105mm)(Trk Drawn) Battalion

45th Field Artillery (105mm)(Trk Drawn) Battalion

56th Field Artillery (105mm)(Trk Drawn) Battalion

11th Engineer (Combat) Battalion

30th Infantry Division

North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee National Guard

117th Infantry Regiment Tennessee National Guard

118th Infantry Regiment South Carolina National Guard

120th Infantry Regiment North Carolina National Guard

113th Field Artillery (155mm)(Trk Drawn) Battalion North Carolina National Guard

115th Field Artillery (75mm)(Trk Drawn) Battalion Tennessee National Guard

118th Field Artillery (105mm)(Trk Drawn) Battalion Georgia National Guard

105th Engineer (Combat) Battalion North Carolina National Guard

102nd Cavalry (Horse-Mechanized) Regiment New Jersey National Guard

70th Field Artillery (75mm)(Horse Drawn) Battalion

71st Field Artillery (75mm)(Horse Drawn) Battalion

38th Engineer (Combat) Regiment

[gunbarrel]

He performed in Lakeland, FL, about a week ago. Check him out:

 

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gal...1005&Ref=PH

[Brian Keith]

Look at the banners on the music stands. Looks like the 17th Field Artillery.

BKW

[Bob Hudson]

He performed in Lakeland, FL, about a week ago. Check him out:

 

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gal...1005&Ref=PH

 

Mickey Rooney can still perform????? I've seen a TV ad with he and his wife Jan and she does all the talking and he mostly stands by her side looking confused.

 

He for real was awarded a Bronze Star in WWII and wore his medals in Lakeland. A few years back actor Red Buttons came up his version of why Rooney got the Bronze Star:

 

Red Buttons: I have one footnote. Mickey and I were in the same outfit during World War II in Europe.

 

Mickey Rooney: That's true.

 

Red Buttons: And Mickey got a Bronze Star.

 

Mickey Rooney: I wear it today.

 

Red Buttons: One day, he saved our entire outfit. He killed a cook.

 

 

mickeyrooney.org has this story:

 

Mickey Rooney -- a K-bar knife, hanging from his belt -- won the Bronze Star for insisting that his pilot fly him into a combat zone to give the troops a few laughs. Celebrity draftees like Mickey Rooney entertained troops in stateside training camps, staging areas and overseas units. Soldier Jeep Shows and Special Service Company Shows took live entertainment to combat areas.

 

Editor's Note: Mickey Rooney served with the Army's 6817th Special Services Battalion, entertaining troops in France on the front lines. He served from June 1944 to March 1946.)

 

They have photos of Pvt. Mickey Rooney (and his knife) here: http://www.mickeyrooney.org/harmy.htm

[Wailuna]

...Look at the banners on the music stands. Looks like the 17th Field Artillery....

Those banners could be 17th Field Artillery. 17th FA was relieved from 2nd Division (Ft. Sam Houston) October 1939 and it was part of 13th FA Brigade (Ft. Bragg) December 1941. Don't know where 17th FA was in between and don't know what connection it had with I Army Corps (Camp Jackson) during this interval, if any. 17th FA was not part of I Army Corps when it went to S.W. Pacific in 1942; 17th FA remained part of 13th FA Brigade from North Africa through Italy.

 

...Mickey Rooney served with the Army's 6817th Special Services Battalion, entertaining troops in France on the front lines. He served from June 1944 to March 1946.

They have photos of Pvt. Mickey Rooney (and his knife) here: http://www.mickeyrooney.org/harmy.htm

Amazing stuff here! However, Jeff's picture clearly predates 1944/1946; looks like he has a scoop.

 

Jeff: Is there any caption on the back of your picture?

[Bob Hudson]

Amazing stuff here! However, Jeff's picture clearly predates 1944/1946;

 

When did enlisted soliders stop wearing those leather belts with their dress tunics?

 

Keep in mind that an original photo does not mean one-of-a-kind since they normally made several prints from each negative.

[Wailuna]

...When did enlisted soliders stop wearing those leather belts with their dress tunics?

According to Stanton, belt hooks for leather belts on enlisted winter service uniforms were deleted in March 1941 "...as a leather-conservation measure..." According to Emerson, issue of the winter service coat was discontinued altogether by late 1943, to be officially supplanted by the Ike jacket in 1944. According to February 1945 edition of AR 615-40 governing Enlisted Personnel Clothing and Equipage the leather belt did not exist. However, I imagine some soldiers in Z.I. wore the winter service coat with leather belt off duty long after these change were made.

[captaxe]

A little bit more on Rooney, from the History of the 115th Regiment, 29th Infantry Division:

 

(This was during a short lull in the fighting in mid- February '45, while the regiment was paused before crossing the Roer)-

 

". . . . High spot in the entertainment line occurred on Thursday February 15, when Pfc Mickey Rooney, in a muddy and overloaded jeep, rolled into Durboslar to present two shows to the men billeted there. . . . . Rooney's show was perhaps the best of those offered and the men who attended the show, frankly hostile to the diminutive Hollywood star at the beginning, quickly warmed to his personality and obvious effort to be just another GI doing the job he was assigned. The imitations, stories and songs [his] troupe presented won hearty and spontaneous applause from the hard-to-please audience and at the end of the perfrmance the men were reluctant to leave. After the show, although tired from driving his jeep many miles that day, Rooney signed countless autographs, posed for pictures for anyone who had a camera, and answered numerous questions about his private and public life. Finally, late in the afternoon, he had to leave to keep another engagement at the Division rest center at Heerlen. . . :