Bluejackets From Nebraska

The only photo in this group that has any writing on the back is the first one in the column. "Adm. Olson, Bob Harris-Yokosuka, Me" Is "Me" Denzel Smith? I went to the obituary photo of Denzel, (See the previous post for a link.) and compared the gentleman on the right, same cleft chin, same shape to the face. I'd say it's about a 95% match. Too, we know that Denzel Smith was in the navy from 1942 to 1946. Yokosuka was a large Japanese naval base at the mouth of Tokyo Bay that was turned over to the United States in 1945. So, while I don't know if Denzel was ever posted to Japan, it's possible that he was there, playing baseball for a navy team in 45 or 46. And we also know from an earlier post (navigate back two) that Denzel was a high school baseball player. Yes, I'm thinking another chapter in the extraordinary life of Denzel Smith, scholar, athlete, veteran of both the army and the navy, consultant to presidents.

There is also some stamped information on the first three photos. On the first one, "Neg. No VNC-6693 (c) -9-56 RELEASED OFFICIAL NAVY PHOTOGRAPH IF PUBLISHED CREDIT LINE MUST READ: OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH" And on the next two images, "OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH Released for publication The navy department has no objection to use of this photograph to commercial advertisements, provided copy and layout are submitted for review, prior to publication to a District Public Information Office. Naval Training Center Public Information Officer. PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE, U.S. Naval Training Center, San Diego 33, Calif."