Oscar Lycurgus Scarborough born 12 April 1897 and died 20 April 1979. Naval service was from 13 August
1917 to 27 September 1919. My father had absolutely no prior interest in the military. He had quit school in the third grade and went to work as a messenger in the Houston office of the Houston and Texas Central railroad, because that is where his father was a train dispatcher. When he moved to Austin, Texas to continue as a train dispatcher, my father came with the family and went to work for the Austin Fire Department, because his mother's brother was doing that. For some reason he enlisted in the Navy and went to boot camp in Newport, Rhode Island. As I mentioned he never talked about that, even when I went to OCS there in 1955. I would serve three tours in Rhode Island, and he never said a word about his being there. By the time our daughter went to the Naval War College there as well, he had passed away. With the exception of two photos, none of these photos have ever been published before, they were taken by my father during his service in the U. S. Navy.

-Cdr. Roger Scarborough USN (ret.)

 

USS Vermont Battleship #20 seen at Newport News, Virginia.

 

1917: The temporary barracks at Naval Station, Newport, Rhode Island. This is probably Coddington Point, which was used as an extension of the existing base, which was too small for the vast numbers of cadets
training during World War 1.

 

1917: The temporary barracks at Naval Station, Newport, Rhode Island.

 

A scene from boot camp at Naval Station, Newport, Rhode Island.

 

1917: A foot bridge somewhere near or at Naval Station, Newport, Rhode Island.

All photos from the collection of Oscar L. Scarborough
courtesy of Cdr. Roger Scarborough USN (ret.)