Sometime in 1944 or 1945 in the midst of WWII, Coast Guardsman William E. Leonard, a machinist’s mate second class, enjoyed a bottle of Hamm’s on Guadalcanal. He had done a lot to earn the beer, serving on an attack transport in both the European and Pacific theaters after enlisting in his home of Sarepta, Louisiana.
Attack transports ferried troops to the front and operated as platforms for launching amphibious assaults. They were often in the thick of fierce bombing, sitting ducks while they unloaded troops onto smaller amphibious assault vehicles.
By the time this photo was taken, Leonard had been involved in a long string of invasions, seven to be exact. He started in the European theater, helping to land troops at north Africa. Then he also fought at the invasions of Sicily and Italy in the Med before being relocated to the other side of the globe.
In the Pacific, Leonard served in the invasions of Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands, Aitape in Dutch New Guinea, and, then, at the Admiralty Islands, as Allied forces island-hopped towards Japan. At each location, Leonard and the other troops saw fierce fighting against determined, well-entrenched Japanese soldiers.
Finally getting a break on Guadalcanal, Leonard was so concentrated on his beer that all he could report to the photographer was that “It’s been a long time between beers.”
