Colonel William G. Purdy

Creator

Preview

Identifier

20034312

Description

Texas Is Chief of MPs in Pacific. The Texas colonel known as "Big Red" leaned back in his chair and grinned wryly. Two months ago all I knew about an MP was that he was a soldier with a white arm band. Today the colonel has some 10,000 of those MP's under his direction and they are scattered all over this vast theater--an area so large that a single one-hop inspection trip is as far as from New York to London. "Big Red" is a six foot, broad shouldered, powerfully built Texan. His red hair is close cropped, almost in GI fashion, and he wears a small mustache that is more sandy than red. One of his biggest jobs came last year. One day a general summoned Colonel Purdy and handed him a telegram. It was from General Marshall to General MacArthur and it said he would be responsible for the safety of the President's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, from the time she arrives in Australia until she left the theater. He traveled all over the area with Mrs. Roosevelt's party during the tour--which was made without an incident. Colonel William G. Purdy, photo made while he was a Captain in World War I. Colonel Purdy, in his Army uniform, is sitting in a high back armed chair. His left leg is crossed over his right with his left hand resting on it., He is posed at a slight angle with head facing forward. His right arm is resting on a table that is covered in a floral print table cloth with a vase of flowers atop. Behind him are plaid drapes. On the wall is an oval painting of flowers.

Archival Date

1944-09

Collection Name

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection

Collection Number

AR406-6-556

Original Format

Negatives, Black & White

File Format

JPG

Rights

Rights held by The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections. Any use of content downloaded or printed from this page is limited to non-commercial personal or educational use, including fair use as directed by U.S. copyright laws. For more information or for reproduction requests, please contact UTA Special Collections by emailing spcoref@uta.edu.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Subjects

Purdy, William G. (Col.); Military officers; Military Police; Military personnel; Warfare; Marshall, George (Gen.); MacArthur, Douglas (Gen.)