I would make a guess that those are US Army Troops. No covers on the helmets. Wake Island was by passed and did not surrender until wars end or there after. There was no battle on Wake Island after the initial Battle and Japanese occupation. I read somewhere that there were many more US Army units, Infantry Artillery etc in the Pacific Theater than the USMC fielded. It could be any where in the Pacific around / before June of 1944. ?

just wanna say hi, lol.

I can't say for sure, there were a lot of configurations for these keys. Possibly the Turret Officer's booth if anywhere, however the firing keys I have seen & found references to for local control in the mounts were a variety, I saw at least one configuration where the key was corded. I just sold off a corded key that from the best info I could source was used on the automatic 3 in 50 mounts. There were a lot of configurations out there, when I first opened the box on this one after I received it, I found a note saying "From missile fire control". That was a long time ago, and I have no way of knowing the provenance of the note - and of course the box is long gone. I've never seen pictures of the firing key setup from the Mississippi, the Boston, or the Canberra for example....   so I guess the best answer is.... no telling! 

Thanks...I'll grant you the photo has been perplexing for sure.  I too like to learn from items and love a real challenge as you do, so yes that answers my question.  Indeed, many a mystery has been solved on this forum for sure.  I appreciate your response.   Now, regarding Robert Capa, see below.  Of note is the fact that nowhere in the obituary below does it indicate Robert Capa ever took photographs in the Pacific theater of war.  It states that he traveled with units from the United States Army (not Marines), documenting Allied victories in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, the Allied landing at Normandy, and the Allied capture of Leipzig, Nuremberg, and Berlin.        

I've got one just like it stamped Rock Island Arsenal......I think it's a range flag. They fly a red flag over the range when shooting is ongoing.

This is on an eBay auction right now.  I don't know much about these factory enameled ones.  Is this one real, and does anyone have any tips for spotting fakes of this style?

If you spent some time at it, you may be able to very much narrow down what ship this was from. The start point would be the Korean PUC. I don’t imagine a hole lot of Navy ships received that award. Figure that list out, then match up the Korean War campaign stars and then the WW2 stars on the PTO ribbon.    It might be possible to narrow the list way down at least?

We've all seen this photo. Good place to post it up!    

3500....incredible! Great items throughout your photos. Thank you for sharing.

Love the embroidery.   Anything in the cuffs?