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» Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
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» Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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» Topic: RON 27 Color Photos
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While cleaning out my Dad's office we were surprised to find three small color photos of PT boats. At first I thought these were stock Navy photos, but that's Dad in the bridge shot. And after I played with the color a bit I could see he's holding Little Joe the 361 boat's monkey mascot. Absolutely no idea when or exactly where, but isn't the water beautiful. (The color has not been adjusted in these scans.) And given the relatively slow speed of color film at that time the shot of a P-38 overtaking a PT while on board a moving PT is pretty impressive.

Dad did tell us that he once flew in a P-38 hunched over in the space behind the pilots seat. The Air Corps was trying to find a ship that the PTs had attacked the night before and Dad helped the pilot locate it. I doubt that this picture has anything to do with that event.

[image]http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/img001-6.jpg[/image]

[image]http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/img001-5.jpg[/image]

[image]http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/img001-4.jpg[/image]

Randy McConnell (Randall J. McConnell III)

Posted By: PRJM3 | Posted on: Nov 4, 2010 - 10:08pm
Total Posts: 94 | Joined: May 25, 2009 - 2:47pm



Randy;
I am not to sure about the #2 and #3 photos, but the #1 photo sure looks like the hills on the backside of Howard AFB/Fort Kobbe, Panama, if it is the boats are heading towards Balboa and the mouth of the Panama canal. If I am correct this photos is dated sometime between Sept-Nov 1943. If you e-mail me I can send you a similar black and white photo of RON 5 boats . if the other two are from the same set then they were also taken in Panama.
Take care,
TED



Posted By: TED WALTHER | Posted on: Nov 5, 2010 - 11:53am
Total Posts: 3058 | Joined: Oct 16, 2006 - 7:42am



Ted,

Thanks for the reply, I thought that someone might recognize the mountains. I'll send you an e-mail and would like to see the B&W photo that you have.

I don't have the actual photos here but as I recall they were all in the same size format and we were assuming they were from the same set. But there's no guarantee that they were from a common set. The second picture is definitely my Dad and Little Joe (which they had on the 361 while in the Phillipines) and there is a bit of a mountain in the background of that picture. Dad was never in Panama, he joined RON 27 when it was already in the South Pacific.

I had even thought that the first picture had a bit of Aleutians look to it, but there would be no reason for dad to have that in his collection. My brother and I were surprised to find color pictures, how he got color photos was of more interest to us than the actual where and when. And that he had color pictures that he didn't put in his album - we found them in his sock drawer!

Thanks again for the input,

Randy McC

.

Posted By: PRJM3 | Posted on: Nov 5, 2010 - 5:39pm
Total Posts: 94 | Joined: May 25, 2009 - 2:47pm



I'll show the pictures to my father when he comes over for Thanksgiving. He was the QM on PT 359 until about April 1945. He might remember the monkey. They had a dog for a mascot on the 359.

Dick Listro



Posted By: Dick Listro | Posted on: Nov 8, 2010 - 7:23pm
Total Posts: 28 | Joined: Dec 5, 2006 - 12:43pm