From my father's photo collection

[Colonel]

As I went through my late father's collection of photos that he took during his time as an officer aboard the USS Cumberland Sound, I knew that I had to make those photos available to others. The USS Cumberland Sound wasn't a high profile ship during World War II. It was a seaplane tender - one of those support ships that made everything else work smoothly. The ship was commissioned in 1944; the war ended, and it was decommissioned in 1947. She had 1,077 Officers and Crew.

At this point, I've got about 175 photos and papers scanned and posted (lots more still to be scanned and posted). All can be clicked on to view as a high resolution image (they were scanned at 600 dpi). I am quite confident that this is the largest collection of photos of and about the Cumberland Sound in existence.

My next project is to try to contact any surviving members of the USS Cumberland Sound Veterans Association to let them know about this.

Enjoy - http://adjutant.com/cumberlandsound/

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Great collection of photos! Thanks Colonel.
Interesting to see what life was like aboard ship then. I'm sure those surviving Vets will appreciate your efforts.
HD

 

[Connery]

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing this Colonel.

 

[redleg141]

Outstanding job Colonel! Great tribute to our sea-going veterans.

 

[Colonel]

Gentlemen, thank you for your kind remarks. I have just finished uploading the last of the photos. There are many, many more photos, but I tried to select the ones that I thought would be of most interest and eliminate the duplicates. For example, there are quite a few showing personnel inspections, but only a few are needed to get the idea. There are a fair number of photos of the natives on the South Pacific islands, but my wife convinced me to not post them even though they are pretty standard "National Geographic" level.

It has been a real pleasure putting this together. Knowing that others are enjoying it makes it even better.

 

[PaidInFull24]

Very very interesting! Thanks so much for sharing! So many times people forget those who were behind the scenes helping to keep things running smoothly. Thanks so much for sharing this information!

Regards,
Nick

 

[dhermann1]

Yes, just because a ship like this was not in the same league as a cruiser or a flat top, it still would have been a choice target for any marauding submarine that stumbled on it. And life at sea is always frought with danger.
Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Stearmen]

Japanese Flying boat

I thought so! The four engine flying boat in your photo album, is a captured Kawanishi H8K2, code name Emily. Wow, I never new we operated any of them.

 

[Giftmacher]

Very good work, thanks for sharing it!

 

[Sgt Brown]

Colonel,

I get to the web page but find no link to the photos. Am I missing something?

Tom

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Will show this to my father in law a retired Cheif. He will love it. Will bring back memories for him.

Stg. Brown look at the top drop down menubar and go to each page to see the photo's.

 

[Giftmacher]

Colonel,

I get to the web page but find no link to the photos. Am I missing something?

Tom

Check that black stripe under the first photo

 

[Colonel]

One minor correction - I was misinterpreting a number on my original post. The final count (at this point anyway) is a total of 125 photos uploaded on the site. The software automatically creates several sizes of the each photo, and that's the number I was originally looking at.

Again, thank you for the kind words and for taking the time to look at the photos.

 

[Sgt Brown]

No menu bar at the top of the page and no black stripe below the first photo. I am not a Facebook user and I am using Firefox. Any ideas?

Tom

 

[Colonel]

Interesting, Tom. I'm not sure what could be happening. This has nothing to do with Facebook and I also use Firefox.

Just below the image of the ship at the top, you should see the words: Home - Contact - Life at sea - Officers and Crew - Operations - Papers - Places - The Ship. Some of them have sub-menus that appear when you have your cursor on the words. Let me know what happens. Thank you very much for your interest, sir.

I tried to add an image to this post that shows what it should look like, but for some reason it just gives me "!" and doesn't say why it won't work. Computers...

 

[Cricket]

I enjoyed seeing the Green Dragon certificate. I interviewed a veteran recently for our newspaper, and he showed me a similar certificate he said he received when he crossed into another hemisphere.

Also, loved the Life at Sea photos. For some reason, really liked the photo of the men at the end of the day, especially with the one man looking up at the camera. Liked the simple yet boyish quality to it.

Thanks for sharing! Great photographs and site.

 

[Colonel]

Thanks, Cricket. My favorite of the Life at Sea series is the first one where the guys are resting and writing letters under the shade of the boat.

 

[1930artdeco]

Hi Colonel,

Please ask the vets that you meet from the ship how we used the Japanes seaplane that we captured. How did they learn to fly, fix and generally try not to get shot down by our own forces. It was really neat to see the photos of another life and time. Makes me remember my grandfather scrap book of the islands-albeit from the land side.

Mike

 

[Steven180]

These are genuinely some fantastic photos and memorabilia...thanks a million for taking the time, effort and consideration of sharing them.

Very infrequently, and it seems like only through forums like this one, do you get to see the rare, actual day to day life and strife of that era and war.

Thanks again! Absolutely great work. Best, and great respect, to your father and family.
M.

 

[Colonel]

Mike and Stearman,
When I first saw the info about the Kawanishi H8K2 (code name - "Emily"), I thought, "No, it's got to be a mistake". I've looked and looked, and it appears that you are right! Congratulations on the sharp eyes and knowledge of the aircraft!! Now I'm really curious about the story behind that one. My father died two years ago, so I can't ask him. I haven't found any information on the veteran's association for the Cumberland Sound. I'll see what kind of contacts I can get through mailing letters to those on the association roster that was in my father's papers. It looks like you've really uncovered quite a story. As I find out more about this, I'll be sure to post it both here and on the ship web site.