Steve Sheppard Photography Blog

This photo is from Okinawa in 1985.

That’s me with the 2nd Battalion 6th Marines First Sergeant Rifinger at Mount Fuji, Japan.

The first sergeant was born-again hard. He had been in the Marines for about 20 years by the time I met him.

Not long after I hit the fleet as a semi-young second lieutenant – I was 24-years-old when I graduated from college and 26 in this photo – I needed a haircut. The first sergeant volunteered to cut my hair.

Being the trusting soul that I was and having the butter bars on my shoulders, I didn’t want to make the first sergeant mad. Let’s face it, I out ranked him but not really. Who would you want to follow into battle, a crusty first sergeant or a 2nd Lt.? Check out all the ribbons. He had been around for a while. I had none.

Lt. Hugh Kitzrow, another 2nd Lt. in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, and I agreed to let him cut our hair. I was the first victim. The first cut began at my forehead and ended at the back of my neck with a double-00 razor. With that first cut, his dirty deed was done. The rest of my head had to be shaved. I looked like I did the morning after I arrived at Officer Candidate’s School. I normally wore a high and tight. That was shaved on the sides and a little longer on top. Sometimes I would get an LZ. That was shaved on the sides and down the middle short of the forehead that created a horseshoe shape on the top of the head. It was called an LZ for landing zone.

When he finished, he just laughed and said, “Now that’s how a lieutenant should look.” I smiled and thanked him for the cut. Lt. Kitzrow, having watched in horror, sat down and got his dues.

As an aside, Lt. Kitzrow make coffee every morning and threw in coffee grounds after the coffee brewed. It would definitely wake you up.

I loved the first sergeant because when he came to you and started a conversation with, “lieutenant”, he was giving you a piece of advice that you had better listen to. He kept my -you know what- out of a sling a number of times.

This photo is from 1984 and was taken on an atoll in the Indian Ocean. I was there for six weeks. Thank you to everyone who has served. The photo was taken with a Konica FC-1.

I shot this photo in 1986 in New Orleans. I was on a weekend road trip with a couple of other Marines. We were training at the time in a Florida swamp. We had the weekend off so we rented a car and started driving. We ended up in New Orleans. It was shot with a Konica FT-1 on Ektachrome and converted to black and white.

Notice the white area at the bottom of the photo? This is what it looks like when the camera’s shutter is bouncing (aka, time for a repair). By the way, never stand in front of a mortar tube when firing live rounds. Mortar fire can be your best friend unless you are in front of it.

This photo was shot in New Orleans in 1986. By this time, I was a platoon commander in the 2nd Light Armored Vehicle Battalion, and we were training in the swamps of Florida. We got a weekend off so a couple of other Marines and I rented a car and drove to New Orleans.

I shot this train station photo somewhere between Mount Fuji and Tokyo, Japan in 1984.

In this photo, the company first sergeant, me, Lt. Wasielewski and Lt. Kitzrow apparently are playing cards. The photo was shot in 1984 in our quonset hut at Mount Fuji, Japan. I probably used a foot locker for a tripod.

As a young boy, I read books about about military history and politics. My bed spread, at the time, had the faces of our United States founding fathers.

What was most interesting, in the books I read, was the island hopping campaign of the Marine Corps during World War II. A few days after arriving at Fox Company, 2^nd Battalion, 6^th Marines, I discovered I was heading to Okinawa and Japan. It was a dream come true for me.

In Japan, I was stationed at Mount Fuji. On weekends, when were were not training, several of my fellow lieutenants and I would travel around Japan. We were getting 250 yen to the dollar in those days so it was pretty cheap. I spent several weekends in Tokyo and had the chance to train with the Japanese Defense Force for a week.

One of the more memorable times in Japan were our trips to an orphanage. We road a bus up the mountainside near Mount Fuji to play with the children. I always carried my Konica FC-1 camera with me where ever we went loaded with Kodachrome or Ektachrome. I can’t find the original slide of this but have an 8×12 print that I have scanned.

On one of our trips, this little child was playing under what I called, as a kid, monkey bars. I walked over to see her as she sat there eating something from a bowl. As I drew closer, she held out her bowl to share with me. I thought about how lucky I am, and it was breaking my heart that these children didn’t have a home other than with each other.

This photo was taken in 1984 so she is probably over 30-years-old now. When I look at this photo today, I still think about how lucky I am, and I always wonder what happened to her. I wish I knew.

Several weeks ago, I began scanning some of my old slides. Almost all of them are from my days in the United States Marine Corps.

I was the infantry platoon commander of third platoon, Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines. I also served as a platoon commander in the 2nd Light Armored Vehicle Battalion. Since only a very few people have seen any of these photos, I decided I would start posting some on the blog.

So far I have only scanned slides. I also have negatives and prints to go through and will eventually scan those. If you follow the blog, I’ll take you to places like Tokyo and Mount Fuji, Japan; Okinawa; Twentynine Palms, California; Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; maybe the swamps in Florida; New Orleans; and an atoll in the Indian Ocean. There also are some photos from when I trained with the Japanese Defense Force.

I haven’t found any photos from my training at The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, but I know I must have them somewhere. I have a book, in which, some of them were published. No, I don’t have photos from Officer Candidates School at Quantico. A camera would have been quickly confiscated. During OCS, I was just trying to survive. And yes, there is a story about surviving.

The photos I have scanned so far were shot on Kodachrome, Ektachrome and Fujichrome. Back in the day, I carried a Konica FC-1 and mostly used a 50mm, 28mm, an 80-200mm zoom and probably a 24mm. After the shutter blew out in my FC-1, I picked up a Konica FT-1. I’ll be posting the photos with black borders so you can see the entire frame just the way they were shot.

Sometimes I will have a story to go along with the photo. Other times it will just be a photo. Let’s face it, these were shot about 25 or so years ago, and I didn’t take notes.

This first photo was shot, in 1984, with the Konica FC-1 on Fujichrome at dusk in Okinawa. Obviously, I converted it to black and white. I liked it better that way. I had just finished working out and shot this photo of some other Marines finishing their evening PT.