I didn't serve either. I was a 1A and thinking I was on my way to Vietnam. When some of my friends who were my age got draft notices I got a 1H card. (Not eligible for service at this time.) I never officially knew why and I didn't call to ask. I've been told that it was because I was an only son but I don't know that for a fact. I carried that card for years until it was nearly worn beyond being able to read it, mostly out of guilt for not having to go when a lot of my friends did, then I put it away for safe keeping. I intended to keep that card forever but somehow it must have gotten misplaced when moving from one house to another and now I can't find it.
After making my last post I got to wondering what kind of machine gut that was in the photo with Dad. I think I have found one like it online. It appears to be a 50 caliber water cooled Browning machine gun. You can clearly see the hoses going to the water pump that kept the barrel cool.
Dad had always told me he was in the 377th Anti-Aircraft Battalion but I believe him telling my cousin he was in the 377th Coast Artillery might be correct according to what is written below.
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"At the beginning of World War II the U.S. antiaircraft artillery force was very much the poor stepchild of the Coast Artillery Corps. The units were mostly three-battalion (a gun battalion, an automatic weapons battalion, and a searchlight battalion) regiments and separate battalions. They were equipped with a motley mix of obsolescent 3-inch guns and single-barrel, water-cooled, .50-caliber machine guns. The German Blitzkrieg in Europe forced a widespread re-evaluation of the Army's AAA capability and, beginning in 1940-1941 a vast expansion of the arm (it finally achieved an identity separate from the Coast Artillery in 1943). On September 30, 1942, it was proposed that 811 AAA battalions be organized (with a total strength of 619,000 men)."
Two views of the Browning .50-caliber, water-cooled antiaircraft machine gun, differing only in the type of mount used. The men of the 225th were trained to use this weapon in their airfield defense role along with searchlights and radar.
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