Grandpa in WWII

[Michael Tompkins]

Scanned some pictures of my Grandpa from WWII. This is James D. Mertz of Minnesota. He was welding in the ship yards in Washington state. He had already joined or tried to join the Navy, but keep getting deferred because he was needed as a welder. He got tired of getting in fights because people kept asking him why he wasn't in the service. So he joined the Army. When he found out you could make $50 more a month, he joined the Airborne. He was 26 years old with two children at home. Ultimately, he went to France with the Co. F, 515th PIR. He was an automatic rifleman and carried the 1918 BAR. I have several more pics of him in France with the BAR, but have to enlarge them. Here are the few that I have...

Grandpa is in the middle of the picture of them relaxing in a field somewhere in France. He is the one kneeling in the middle of the photo posed in the doorway of an 8x40 train car. That's him laying on the sidewalk behind the BAR.

Sadly, my Grandpa passed in January of '97. Grandma is still with us and just celebrated her 96th birthday last January. Remarkably, she has no health issues and we expect to celebrate her 100th in the future!

[phil441]

Great pics!
Thanks for posting them.....

[Barryeye]

Great pictures. He lives on through them.

[Michael Tompkins]

The rest of the pictures I scanned from the photo album.

[Ron James]

The first picture, that old firetrap wood barracks sure brought back memories of Ft. Lost in the Woods.

[6thMARDIV]

The markings on the helmet's are awesome. You should get a repro. marked the same way for display.

[Embalmer]

Doing WWII reenacting as a bar man, I have some serious respect for those guys, as from first hand experience carrying that gun, fully loaded cartridge belt ect all weekend ain't easy. I'm a big guy, and know majority of gunners then were small guys and carried then around almost daily.


Great pics.

[Michael Tompkins]

I think my Grandpa was around 5'7" or 5'8". I remember seeing pictures of him back then in the sleeveless t-shirts and he definitely had some muscles. He was in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) for 2 years before he went to the ship yards in WA state. I am sure the CCC worked him hard. Mike