VN001 is busy without firing a shot. The Marine kneels with a radio handset at his face, an M16 in his other hand and an antenna rising above his helmet. The equipment on his back and the divided attention of his hands explain his job more clearly than a label could. In a shelf of riflemen aiming in the same direction, he introduces a different kind of activity.
The extended directing arm gives this Del Prado military policeman an immediately readable task. He is a useful support subject for a collection otherwise dominated by soldiers firing weapons or advancing into combat.
This Del Prado Marine carries the Pacific campaign into the infantry collection. The helmet, field clothing and forward-held weapon create a practical combat silhouette, with Guadalcanal providing a specific historical setting.
The helmet markings, arm identification and medical bags distinguish this figure from the riflemen around him. Del Prado’s 94th Division subject makes care and casualty handling part of the collection’s account of the final European campaign.
The photographed Black American pilot adjusts his flight equipment rather than posing beside a tally board. The Italy 1944 subject offers a useful connection to the Tuskegee Airmen and to the practical clothing worn for combat flying.
The backpack radio changes the meaning of this Marine’s pose. He is not simply another rifleman with extra luggage: the equipment represents a link between a small group on the ground and the wider organisation supporting it.
The wing badge and officer’s clothing identify an aviator even without flying goggles or an aircraft. This standing Del Prado subject belongs to the American air service of the First World War, an organisation still within the Army.
A netted helmet, loaded equipment and jump clothing identify this American airborne subject. The important story begins after the parachute has been discarded: finding other men, reaching an objective and fighting with what arrived on the ground.
The First Special Service Force is a good antidote to sorting every miniature into a single national box. This Del Prado soldier represents a formation built from Americans and Canadians and equipped along American lines.
The broad helmet, khaki clothing and compact automatic weapon distinguish this lieutenant from the later American infantry usually associated with Europe. His subject belongs to the desperate defence of the Philippines in 1942.
