Family of WWII Army veteran needs help with photos
Today is the 76th anniversary of the raising of the flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The battle started on Feb. 19, 1945 as the U.S. Marines and Navy sought to capture the island of Iwo Jima, Japan and the two air fields for the Allied Forces to use in the war that would be over in the next seven months.
The four-year war helped bring many changes to Mississippi. Ever since the Civil War, the state was mostly an outcast in the nation especially with a flag that boasted the racist ideology of the Confederacy. However, because of the many new military posts, the state’s economy rose significantly.
Over 237,000 Mississippians served in the mili
tary, and Biloxi was even home to the largest military air base in the world with roughly 69,000 residing at Keesler Field which was a training field for the US Army Air Corps.
In 2014, a WWII Army veteran from Maine named Richard Perkins passed away. Perkins was a radio operator at Fort Shafter in Honolulu, and he took hundreds of pictures during his service days. After he passed, his children found the photos which include Army, Navy and Marine veterans and other people who lived in and around Fort Shafter.
His daughter, Alice, and son, Dana, want to compile all of his pictures and include as much information as possible. They are working with military museum curators, social media groups and other veteran organizations to find people in these photos. They know how many people served this country in World War II, and they have called on the help of Mississippians to help identify the people in their father’s pictures.
Once the Perkins siblings are ready, they will donate the original negatives, photos and three photo albums to either the Army Museum or the National Park Service in Hawai’i.
All of the pictures can be viewed at www.ww2pacificveteransproject.org.
If you recognize anyone in these photos, you may contact Alice and Dana through the website or by writing to them at World War 2 Pacific Veterans Project, PO Box 789, Biddeford, Maine 04005.