Navy Pre-Flight School Photos, Part 3
This is the last part in a three-part mini-series on the photos taken by the U.S Navy during World War II at the Navy Pre-Flight School at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California, east of San Francisco. This was one of several U.S. facilities where the Navy trained men to be pilots.
Above, flight cadets at St. Mary's practice having to swim in their flight suits if their plane goes down in the ocean, while other cadets watch naked from the sidelines.
Photos were taken of new recruits coming into the facility. Later, a second photo was taken of each cadet to document the physical changes after months of intensive training.
For some reason, all of the nude photos date from June 13, 1942. After that, cadets wore jockstraps for the photos.
Above, new recruit James E. Sipprell.
D. D. Sowders. It's safe to say that all these men have passed away. Since they were 18 or older in 1942, they would be 100 years old or older today.
Roger A Stewart. In each of the side view photos, someone is holding the cadet's arms up horizontally. I don't know the purpose of this hand-holding, but it had the side effect that the cadet's hands are not blocking our view of his penis.
S. M. Taylor. I got this photo from Vintage Muscle Men. Thanks, Jerry!
J. E. Van Housen.
Louis F. Zimmerman. Some of the photos on the Internet have been cropped like this one to eliminate the rulers that originally surrounded the front, rear and side views.
W. J. Zimmerman.
Name unknown.
Name unknown.
Name unknown.
Name unknown.
We end with a name that's tantalizingly half-revealed. It looks like it might be L. W. ?axton, but the first letter of the last name is not clear. I would have guessed Paxton, but the letter P would not have produced the little dark spot to the bottom left of the "A", so it must be a letter such as H or M that would create that dark spot. So, still a mystery.