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6.12.06

No Photo Paper Meant No Way To Do My Job


The 30th Arty Bgde’s officers, their wives and kids, the enlisted men and their families all appreciated the way that I treated them as my photography subjects. They loved it when I gave copies of my photos to all who asked, not just the ones who ordered me to, and anyone higher in rank than me often either requested or outright ordered me to give them copies. I gave what was right and fair, because photography of that type is there to boost the troops' moral. It is all about promoting good moral, so that soldiers can feel good and do their jobs well. I figured that “we were all in it together”, and that the cooks should cook good, the clerks should get their paperwork done right and in a reasonable amount of time, etc.; I believed that everyone of us should do our jobs the best we could, after all, we all worked for each other’s benefit. I kept up that hard work, and the freely giving of my work and my natural, God given photography talents, until my photo paper ran out. It is that pure and simple.

After most of the photo supplies ran out, I simply refused to pay for anymore them out of my own pocket.

We soldiers didn’t have pocket money all the time back then; our pay was low and most guys ran out of cash in the first week after payday. On days when there was no film in the lab or money in my pocket for film, I had to go on 30th Arty assignments without film for my camera - that drove me nuts.

When there was no usable photo paper left, the 30th Arty individuals who were in charge of me still expected me to do photography for them.

It was an impossible situation, a living nightmare - with no way out, no way to do what I was ordered to do.

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