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.
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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.
Update: after receiving more information from a friend who follows my blog, it has become clear that this is almost certainly Lowell William Saxton, a Navy pilot in World War II. He was killed on June 15, 1943, almost exactly one year after this photo was taken.
16 comments:
Navy cadets? Obviously, the barber hadn't sheared off their hair yet. Perhaps the haircuts came after the photo session? Any theories on the hair?
I like it that the hands were held up. I don't know the original purpose, but I like it that they don't block us from seeing the men's penises. The men who took these pictures, and the men who were photographed had no idea that there would be old men who so enjoyed looking at them many years later.
How about Braxton for the last name?
Love the naked "average" guys ... normal muscled, A bit of a tummy, youn man asses, regular sized dicks ... not those porn guys (and their associated unattainable bodies).
A couple of them clearly liked to spend time outside in the sun shirtless, and I'll bet they were very popular while doing so!
On the pool scene: it would be natural for cadets to remove their wet clothes , hang them to dry, and hang around pool naked to watch the others jump after them.
On Taylor: interesting artifact on photo. On the front facing image, it almost looks like he has foreskin covering 2/3 of glans, yet the side view clearly shows he has had a full snip. There are two "lines" in photo, one above groin and one that passes right over glans to give that impression.
Curious why they go through the trouble of having the name of person on the negative, as well as the date, yet the year is blank. (or was it digitally removed?)
For a 1942 shoot, meaning most would have been born in 1924 or before, many still with their foreskins since born prior to ramping of of the practice.
Re: SickoRicko comment on guys where first letter of name is truncated.
Could not be Braxton. The shape of the lower right of the letter preceeding the A could not be an R, but could be a B, G or S
Also: on Zimmerman: any explanation for the writing on negative that speells it Zimmedman, and the font size for the E ?
(Sorry of I spend so much time looking at details of those images, it is because I truly appreciate history :-)
@Anon - I do not know how the letters for the names were put on the photos. It was certainly not an electronic process like a modern computer. They might have used mechanical pieces of type, like printers used to use. It appears that the letter "E" was for some reason slightly larger and bolder than the others; this is evident in other photos with names containing "E", and in the word "JUNE".
As for the "R" in Zimmerman appearing to be a "D", if you enlarge the photo, you will see that what looks like a "D" actually has two lines extending out from the bottom, so it is really an "R" that, again, is perhaps a larger font size so it didn't line up. I went back and looked at other photos, and found the same thing in the "R" in Sowders, and in fact, the initials for Sowders that I thought were "D D" are actually "R R".
Finally, I think you are right and I was wrong about what letters could precede "AXTON". Enlarging that photo, the blob to the left of the "A" does appear larger than the end of a letter like "H" or "M" as I had thought, or "R" as SickoRicko suggested. That thicker blob could well be part of a letter "B" or "G" or "S".
Good point Gerald but I think young men enjoy those pix too.
It would be nice if this practice was re-introduced for males of all services and educational institutions, as a matter of public record :)
#10 the cutest guy!
These guys just don't look like Navy pilots. The guys I've seen in jockstraps actually look like military material. The totally nude guys do not. Strange.
thanks for posting these. i have seen all the pics from other blogs except for the 2 zimmerman. i liked it.
Wonderful series and selections.
I may enjoy these too much, if that’s possible. From another time. And such a variety of men.
As for them all being dead, earlier this year I saw a 103 year old pilot speak at a plane museum in Arizona. He’d written a book and was speaking in front of a plane he flown in a number of missions. Was quite surprising and incredible. He was funny and informative and energetic. There was a photo of him as a young pilot (in clothes).
I will say I would expect most of them to have passed by now.
All kinds of men enjoy these pixs.
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