The photo was taken sometime between 1945 and 1946. The image is quite large. Virtually every crew member or their descendants that I have encountered own an original. My Fathers was mailed in a cardboard tube and had a 3 cent stamp that says "Win the War". Unfortunately storing the picture in that tube for many years damaged it. My fathers was unrestorable.

The original high resolution scan here was provided by Keith Anderson grand nephew of Ensign Roy Edward Jones who died while trying to land a flying dud on USS Admiralty Islands.

See more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSAdmiraltyIslands_(CVE-99)

or here: http://www.navsource.org/archives/03/099.htm

I restored the high resolution image and cleaned it up while maintaining the original details. I had been trying to restore a scan of my Fathers photo which was badly damaged due to improper storage. Thank you Keith!

I am compiling a list of known sailors on this photo. So, if you recognize your ancestors please let me know. I will have posted the smaller version of the image with the known crew members. I only have a handful and it would be great to add more.

Bratton Watson