A Happy Little Find

[Dirk]

Not a primary area of collecting for me, but still think its kind of a interesting find. A leave slip for an soldier whose troop transport was en route to the States from the Philippines and had stopped in Japan probably to coal. What is interesting is one of the endorsers of the leave form was a Capt Wendall C. Neville, USMC (middle signature). Neville transiting to a new assignment at HQ USMC, had by this time been brevetted for his actions at Guantanamo Bay, fought his way to Peking, won praise as the military governor of Basilan in the Philippines. And would go on to win the Medal of Honor at Vera Cruz, lead his Regiment at Belleau Wood and would go on to serve as Commandant of the Marine Corps, following Maj Gen Lejeune.

 

So here we have Neville serving in some leadership capacity, while transiting home on board a Army transport ship. I had no idea Marines were expected to integrate into the ships command structure. .

[ragbag]

Great find. Most of these items have been lost in time. Thanks for looking into history and saving it. Best to you -Jim

[Brig]

These mundane type items are often some of the best, depicting routine tasks not often documented elsewhere. Nice piece of ephemera

[bobgee]

Very neat! He may have been assigned as OD on that day. Great autograph of an iconic Marine! Congrats.......Bob

[aerialbridge]

Very cool, Dirk. I love seeing old paper that has incredibly survived all these years. Apropos of that I've got 80 year old paper that shows a China Sailor w.o. put in charge of an evacuation group on the commercial liner he returned stateside on--whether by request or volunteer, I don't know.

[Dirk]

Thanks guys....given how small the Corps was then, you never know which famous Marine might show up in document or in photo groupings.