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1944 Army vs Navy Baseball w/ Joe Dimaggio?


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I picked up a large grouping from a WWII Navy vets family. I literally had to go up in the attic and get it. The vet served on a submarine and i believe a destroyer. I will post the entire grouping later as i am going thru two boxes full of medals,uniforms,paper, etc. Ran across this and thought i would scan it real quick some one who is more into baseball (football is my game) may recognize more familiar names.

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Great Hawaiiana, Legion. Staff Sergeant Joe DiMaggio played on the 7th Air Force team in Hawaii in 1944. And CPO Pee Wee Reese played for the Aiea Naval Hospital team. Here is a photo op showing these baseball greats with some Army and Navy brass.

 

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Furlong Field was located in Civilian Housing Area III (CHA3) at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, which was a huge "company town" built to house civilian shipyard workers.

 

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  • 11 months later...

News Flash! Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that Joe DiMaggio was not a happy soldier. Link here.

 

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7th Air Force Chaplain consoles distraught sergeant in Hawaii

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Thanks for posting these pictures and information. DiMaggio was a favorite of mine on the field but he seemed sketchy off the field. It's interesting to consider his feelings of service vs. so many others.

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News Flash! Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that Joe DiMaggio was not a happy soldier. Link here.

 

post-1963-1284151933.jpg

7th Air Force Chaplain consoles distraught sergeant in Hawaii

 

 

Looks more like the officer is sewing his patch on for him. If that is the Chaplain, he must have been one of the few flight rated Chaplains.

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Good eye, Beast. In Old Army slang chaplains were "Sky Pilots" -- but can't fool you. Actually, the unidentified officer is the Army contingent of the aforementioned brass (see post #4), cigar and all. No telling what his actual duty was, other than having his picture made with Joe DiMaggio. He looks like he's enjoying himself, too.

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  • 3 weeks later...
...the unidentified officer is the Army contingent of the aforementioned brass (see post #4), cigar and all. No telling what his actual duty was, other than having his picture made with Joe DiMaggio...

The officer has been identified as Brig. Gen. William J. Flood, who was 7th Air Force Chief of Staff when the picture with S/Sgt. DiMaggio was taken on June 9, 1944. Aside from being a prop for USAAF celebrity pictures, Gen. Flood had an otherwise eventful Army career. Following WWI service in the AEF with the Aviation Section, Signal Officers Reserve Corps, he remained on active duty and achieved the ratings of command pilot, combat observer, airship pilot, balloon pilot and balloon observer during the interwar years. As a colonel, he was made Air Base Commanding Officer at Wheeler Field, T.H., where he was wounded in action during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941 (source: USAF bio. Link here).

 

And Gen. Flood's showbiz days predate these photo ops. with Joe DiMaggio and Pee Wee Reese. In 1929, he was Commanding Officer of 19th Airship Company, Langley Field, Va., when he played a "starring" role in this newsreel short: Crack Army Flyers Land Blimp in City to Honor Lincoln (on his 120th birthday).

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  • 4 weeks later...

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