Need help with a Navy photo from the 40's

[sakuraba]

Looks like a graduation of some sort of enlisted men.  There are 4 rows of about 34 men per row.  They look like they are wearing blue uniforms with the white hats.  Its in black and white.  in the middle of the group one guy is holding a sign that says     43-55.

Any idea, or somewhere i could search.   Thanks

[SteveInArk]

Hope I am not stating the obvious, but the 43-55 would be the class number.  IAW, the 55th class graduated in this "place", in 1943.  Not sure whether they used actual calendar years back then, or government fiscal years.  I do know that by 1972, the military was using fiscal years that started 1 October, for class numbering.  But, since they were already up to "55" (more than one a week), it would likely be a school graduating lots of folks, like a basic training school during wartime.

If you post a scan of the pix, someone might be able to ID the background, and thus the Navy location, from their own pix of relatives that served in WWII. 

These kind of searches are great to do... hopefully, you can get the full facts on that picture. 

[sakuraba]

That what i was thinking about year and class of that year.  The pic is so
brittle or i would.  My Grandad passed away last week and i was going through some
of his old pics and found it. Plus it is 33x8.  Trying to have it repaired.

[SteveInArk]

If you can get a good hi-res scan of it, you would be surprised at the [digital] restoration that can be done.  I have done a lot of family photo fixes and even I am surprised sometimes.

However, I would recommend trying to get as good a digital (hi-res) scan of it, regardless of how imperfect, before you give it up for restoration work.  33x8 is a tough size scanner to find.  But multiple shots on a standard 12x8 platen can be merged fairly easily.

I understand your concerns, and good luck.