Based on the letters of Earl Philip Reinhalter (1922-1953). Edited by his son, Earl Philip Reinhalter (1950-).


Photo Highlights: THE WAR ENDS




Getting ready to move into campsite at Ie Shima, 1945.




Jap surrender party at Ie Shima, August 1945. They arrived in two "Betty" bombers, which by U.S. instructions were painted white, with green "+" insignia.




Jap peace emissaries - August 1945 at Ie Shima.




General MacArthur's plane "Bataan" (a Douglas C-54 Skymaster) at Ie Shima, August 1945.




Ernie Pyle's grave on Ie Shima. After the war, Pyle’s remains were moved to a cemetery
in Okinawa, and then to National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.




The Base Operations building at Atsugi Airfield, about 30 miles southwest of Toyko, with 3rd Airdrome Squadron sign.




The 3rd Airdrome Squadron's "First In Tokyo" sign at the engineering tech supply hangar in 1945. In smaller print, the sign lists the previous
places where the squadron had been based during its overseas service, including Brisbane, Amberley, Charleville,
Oro Bay, Lae, Saidor, San Pablo, Tanauan (misspelled as "Tanuan"), Floridablanca and Ie Shima.




Post-war view of destruction in Tokyo, 1945.




Discharged Jap soldiers on the way home - Tokyo, 1945.




The entrance to the cave belong to General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the Jap commanding officer on Iwo Jima, as it appeared after the war in 1945.




Sgt. Earl Reinhalter upon arriving at home at 4408 Frederick Avenue in Baltimore after the war, 1945.




Earl back in civilian clothes, possibly in Washington, DC or downtown Baltimore.
Notice the light mustache, which he did not have in any of the wartime photos.



More Photo Highlights:

STATESIDE (late 1942 - May 1943)
AUSTRALIA (June 4, 1943 until December 1943)
NEW GUINEA (December 1943 to Oct/Nov 1944)
NEW GUINEA - notable planes
LEYTE, PHILIPPINES (1944-45)
LUZON, PHILIPPINES (1945)



 
NOW AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK!

The Kindle book includes Earl Reinhalter’s World War II letters; all 23 issues of the unit’s wartime newsletter “The Squadron Pulse,” which was originally edited by Leonard Stringfield; all 12 issues of the “Pennant Parade” newsletter that Stringfield published while sailing home after the war; complete text of the U.S. government booklet “Pocket Guide to Australia,” which soldiers heading Down Under were given to read; more than 200 photos; pre-war and postwar family history; and over 700 explanatory endnotes.



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