Jay Mechling - Soldier Snapshots: Masculinity, Play, and Friendship in the Everyday Photographs of Men in the American Military

SOLDIER
SNAPSHOTS

SOLDIER SNAPSHOTS

Masculinity, Play, and Friendship
in the Everyday Photographs of
Men in the American Military

JAY MECHLING

University Press of Kansas

2021 by the University Press of Kansas

All rights reserved

Photos courtesy of authors collection.

Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66045), which was organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mechling, Jay, 1945 .

Title: Soldier snapshots: masculinity, play, and friendship in the everyday photographs of men in the American military / Jay Mechling.

Description: Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020048514

ISBN 9780700632435 (cloth)

ISBN 9780700632923 (ebook)

ISBN 9780700632442 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Vernacular photographyUnited States. | Male friendshipUnited StatesPictorial works. | SoldiersRecreationUnited StatesPictorial works. | Photographic criticism.

Classification: LCC TR23 .S66 2021 | DDC 770dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048514 .

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.

Printed in the United States of America

10987654321

The paper used in the print publication is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.481992.

For
Simon J. Bronner
and
John Paul Wallis,
two men from different generations,
both coauthors with me and each my friend

I have dedicated this book to Simon J. Bronner and John Paul (JP) Wallis. Simon and I have been friends and coauthors for about four decades, and I owe him an intellectual and friendship debt too long to describe here. I met JP just as I retired from teaching American studies at the University of California, Davis, in 2009 after thirty-eight years. He is a Marine veteran of two tours in Iraq, and our collaboration began with my helping him with his senior honors thesis in American studies, and that led to our writing two articles and a book together. I have learned a great deal from both men.

This project began with a book chapter I wrote for a volume of military folklore edited by Tad Tuleja and Eric Eliason, and I am grateful that they invited me into the project. Later, Tad was our editor for a book chapter I wrote with JP for a volume on resistance in the military.

Over the years Jon Wagner has been a good friend and intellectual playmate. I always learn from him.

This book benefited greatly from commentary by John Ibson and Richard Burns, for which I am grateful.

I deeply appreciate the confidence in the project and the encouragement from Joyce Harrison, editor in chief at the University Press of Kansas.

Finally, I am nothing without the love and support and advice from my spouse and longtime coauthor, Elizabeth Walker Mechling. Always.

The snapshot opening this Introduction sets the tone for what is to follow. As is typical of the snapshots in this book, I do not know the names of the two men in the snapshot. I do not even know their branch of service, so I will just call them soldiers. The bed and metal lockers behind them suggest they are in a more formal and comfortable barracks than a tent in a field. They are looking at an array of snapshots spread out on the bed, and from what we can tell the snapshots are of women, probably girlfriends or family members or both. The snapshot of the two soldiers, though, conveys more. These two soldiers are buddies, and they are experiencing a moment of strong bonding looking at these snapshots together, doing something side by side. The snapshots on the bed probably belong to just one of the soldiers (my guess is the one on our right, given his primary body position over the snapshots and the buddys body position from the side).