This group contains three albums all ID'd to PFC. Edward J. Vargo of Ohio who served in 78^th Fighter Squadron, 15^th Fighter Group. The unit was stationed in Hawaii and Iwo Jima.

The first album contains approx. 270 photos. Most are snapshots, only a handful are “stock” photos. There are numerous photographs of P-51 Mustangs from the 78^th Squadron, a few of destroyed Japanese aircraft and tanks, some B-29’s and one photo of a P-61 “Black Widow.” There are also numerous shots of dead Japanese, destroyed gun emplacements and bunkers as well as shots of Mount Suribachi, Marine division cemeteries and different personnel of the 78^th Fighter Squadron. There are a few pages where photos were removed but the 270+ that are here are a wonderful record of this man’s time on Iwo and what he saw while there. The album has the typical black paper pages of the period with one or two coming loose and a embossed thick brown cardboard cover.

The second album also belonged to PFC Vargo. It has a spiral binding with a stiff brown paper cover stamped at center with a gold US eagle in a circle surrounded by “U.S. ARMY SNAPSHOTS.” The album contains about 102 snapshots of Vargo’s time on Hawaii. There are the usual photos of hula girls and famous landmarks around the island. There is a snapshot of President Roosevelt that looks like Vargo may have taken himself. It may be a stock photo but we cannot be sure. There are also numerous photos of Vargo’s friends in the unit. One page has photos of two different soldiers posing with a bomb while two others show soldiers holding a .50 caliber machine gun. There are also snap shots of a USO Show. Clearly seen on stage are Bob Hope, Jerry Colona and Francis Langford as well as two or three other unknown performers. Most pages in the album are loose and the back cover is gone.

The third album in the group dates from the post-World War Two to Korean War era. It is a photo album that belonged to a Marine. How he was related to Edward J. Vargo who owned the first two items in this group is not stated. The album has ebony wood covers with hand painted decoration of a gold border surrounding maps of Japan and Korea done in red with inlaid mother-of-pearl chips marking some of the major cities. The front cover has split and is in two pieces. The interior of the album is of the usual black paper. There are 50 photographs in the album. Most show Marines in winter clothing in the field. The pictures remind one of images taken during the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir but the images are not marked and may just be Marines on winter maneuvers somewhere. Some of the photos show an ambulance while others show the countryside and some show groups of Marines standing around talking or smoking. There are also some recreational photos taken indoors.

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