[PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM DOCUMENTING AMERICAN SOLIDER KENNETH FIELDS DURING HIS SERVICE IN ETHIOPIA]

Fields, Kenneth: [Ethiopia]

Verlag: [Harar, Ethiopia, 1967

Beschreibung

Three postcards, one customs tag, one piece of currency, and forty-one photographs (one in color), most tab-mounted, ranging in size from 2½ x 3¼ to 5 x 8 inches. Most of the photographs with accompanying manuscript descriptions in pencil on paper tab-mounted beside the photos. Folio. Scrapbook album with stiff paper-covered boards, string-tied binding. Light wear and soiling to boards, light tanning to index cards and album leaves. Very good. Extensively-annotated photograph album covering Kenneth Fields' life and adventures in and around Harar, Ethiopia during his military service there in the late 1960s. Almost all of the photos in the album are accompanied by substantial captions from Fields on mounted index cards. Fields put this together as a travelogue, starting with three postcards home to his wife, Irma, from each of his layovers on the way to Addis Ababa (Rome, Athens, and Cairo). He arrived in Harar on July 23, 1967, and the first photo is an image of the house he and MSgt. Seery share, "rented for us by the American Embassy." Then follow photos of their pet baboons Cheesy and Ishy, who is "a mess.loves beer & cigarettes better than anything." They also have a donkey, Thelma, and a watch dog, Spot. He then provides a photo tour of the house and a summary of his expenses: for a guard ("sabanya"), a cook (Tinish), and maid (Tinish's daughter, Alllimus), his share is $17 a month. Fields spent a significant time hunting - there are several images of him with other soldiers on expeditions, posing with gazelles and kudus. One photo includes "our helper Tashoma.a little 15 or 16 year old kid the group has kinda adopted. He helps out around the house & goes to the field with us.the boys are trying to get him into Haille Sallaisie [sic] University." There are also images of a small zoo nearby, a "typical Ethiopian house," the local cemetery, and the central market in Harar. The last few photos depict a more formal dinner party with Ethiopian officials, but Fields does not provide any captions. Fields never describes his duties or mission in any detail, but in 1953, a U.S.-Ethiopian Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement was signed, and U.S. military advisors established several semi-permanent installations in Ethiopia, to help reorganize the Imperial Ministry of National Defense. American "advisors" were also active in helping Ethiopia fight against the Somali Republic and Eritrean Liberation Front rebels. The Ministry's Third Division was headquartered at Harar, which is also where the Imperial Military Academy was located. Kenneth Q. Fields (1937-2012) of Sanford, Florida, spent his career in the Army, serving in Korea and Vietnam, and retiring with the rank of master sergeant. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers WRCAM56249

Bibliografische Details

Titel: [PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM DOCUMENTING AMERICAN ...

Verlag: [Harar, Ethiopia

Erscheinungsdatum: 1967