80 Years Ago Today. Aboard the Iowa-class fast super dreadnought USS New Jersey (BB-62). Official caption:
“Looking over a Marine’s pack, during an inspection, 5 September 1943. Officers include Captain Carl F. Holden (third from left); Admiral Donald B. Beary (sixth form left, hands on hips); Captain K. D. Christian (seventh from left, crossed arms). Note expressions of all concerned.”
Of note, this was one of the first Marine Detachments to hit the fleet with M1 Garands. Catalog #: 80-G-82699
A close-up of those concerned faces:
As detailed by DANFS, New Jersey had been commissioned three months prior at Philadelphia on 23 May 1943 and was in the midst of her workups and shakedowns in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. On 7 January 1944 she passed through the Panama Canal war-bound for duty with the Fifth Fleet and in the next 20 months would earn nine battle stars for her World War II service.
Of note, the sour-looking ADM Beary (USNA 1910) had earned a Navy Cross in the Great War in command of a patrol yacht and destroyer engaged in convoy duty and anti-submarine warfare and early in WWII, as skipper of the troop transport Mount Vernon (AP 22), was credited with landing desperately needed reinforcements at Singapore and the evacuation of refugees from that city despite repeated air raids in the area just prior to the fall of the city. During 1944-45, he was credited with being a sort of logistics genius behind the scenes that helped win the Pacific War. He would become President of the Naval War College post-war and is buried at Annapolis.