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Preferred Citation:

Thomas M. W.  Green Photograph Album, 1943-1951, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Scope and Contents

Photograph album created by Thomas "Tommy" Matthew William Green, Jr. who served in the United States Army during World War II.  He was a second generation African American soldier, his father, Thomas M. W. Green was a Sergeant - Cavalry Detachment in the Army and is buried at West Point Military Academy Cemetery.  Green was part of a segregated unit and his album features photos of his friends and family along with other soldiers with whom he served.  The photographs along with some of his captions capture many aspects of Green's experience while he was in the Army including a brutal march in boot camp that he claimed "it seems like the skin on the bottom of my feet all came lose [sic]".  There are also photographs of Tommy that show he was injured with a leg wound.  He is shown on a stretcher in an army transport vehicle, being loaded into a military plane, and also in a hospital ward recovering from his wounds. 

After being released from the Army, probably due to his injuries, Tommy worked on merchant ships as part of the mess crew through the 1950's.  There is a newspaper article in the album that reports on the death aboard the ship in which Tommy was attached of John D. Eudy, who passed away while out to sea due to a heart attack.  Tommy married a Philippine woman and a card in the album dated 1951 features the two and reads, Mr. and Mrs. Louise and T. Green.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• United States--Armed Forces--African Americans--History--20th century
• World War, 1939-1945