Vintage Military - Part 64

 Fort Sheridan part 4

Today's post shows the last of my collection of Fort Sheridan photos.

Note: I have edited some photos to improve brightness and contrast.

Fort Sheridan was an Army base just north of Chicago.  During World War II, it was an induction and training center, processing over half a million inductees.

(Note: the photo of 9506 is partial, not showing the rear view.  I have not found a full version of 9506.)

As part of an Army project to study different body types, some of these inductees were photographed nude.

These photos are sometimes confused with the Ivy League nude posture photos or the Navy pre-flight school nude photos at St. Mary's, but these photos are easily distinguished because each man stands on a base labeled "Ft. Sheridan".

A few dozen of these photos have been found (I have 36 of them), but the numbers on the base that each recruit stands on makes me wonder whether over 9000 inductees were photographed.

One of my readers noted that there was also a prisoner of war camp at Fort Sheridan, and he wondered if these might be German POWs.  It's possible, but most of the sources I've seen refer to these men as American Army inductees.

That's it for my collection of Fort Sheridan photos.