3 inch Antiaircraft Gun M3 1939

[bdgreen]

Below are several nice color photographs of the 69th Coastal Artillery Regiment, US Army at Camp Buchanan, Puerto Rico, 1939. The first two photos show loading practice/gun drill with 3 inch M3 AA guns on M2A2 mounts. The cartridges are probably M10 Drill rounds. The 3rds photo is Camp Buchanan and the final photo is men in formation. These images are from the photographic collection of Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries (Dallas, Texas, USA) and have been uploaded to Flickr with no copyright restrictions. Brian

 

[HAZORD]

Nice photos thanks for posting them! Looks like Tuesday was sun-tan day.

 

[TimG]

They all appear to be wearing blue overalls, was this the uniform for such units, for this period?

TIA

TimG

 

[bdgreen]

Tim, the only other pictures I've seen showing Coastal Artillery personnel were in B&W, but those pictures from the 1910's through the 1930's typically show personnel wearing denim work coveralls. This type of clothing was chosen because Coastal Artillery units conducted gun drills, applied cosmoline (heavy weight, thick grease) to guns and cleaned guns (i.e. coastal artillery pieces) on a daily basis. Soldiers in the Coastal Artillery were given the nickname "cosmoline soldiers" because of this. Talk about budget cuts now days, in the unit formation picture notice one soldier in the back row has a big hole in his coveralls just below the right knee and many of the coveralls worn by the other soldiers appear dirty and faded not to mention they are living in tents. Remember it was 1939 and the 'Great Depression' was still ongoing and the defense budget was very tight. Information source: American Seacoast Defenses A Reference Guide by M. A. Berhow, 2004. Brian