Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 293

Price Realized: $ 531
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(MILITARY.) Album of paratrooper R.D. Dykes in training in Okinawa. 50 items laid down on 10 leaves of a photo binder. 4to, 11 x 9 inches, spiral-bound, with original pictorial front board featuring a map of Okinawa, annotated with locations of military bases; minor wear. Okinawa, Japan, and vp, circa 1963-65
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

These photographs document the new 173rd Airborne Brigade, a paratrooper unit known as the Sky Soldiers. They began training in Okinawa in May 1963. In May 1965, they became the Army's first full unit to deploy in Vietnam. This album was kept by Private R.D. Dykes, and includes a clipping about the Sky Soldiers, 8 snapshots from the home front (including baby pictures dated 1964), 7 snapshots of Dykes and his soldier friends, a page with Dykes's portrait, name tag and insignia, 27 professional photographs of the Sky Soldiers in training (one captioned Yomitan, their base in Okinawa), and finally a color portrait on fabric of the same infant shown on the second page. Many of the training photographs depict the Sky Soldiers in the air, including one marked "Dykes" depicting the private about to touch ground.