Alright, story time!
These slides were taken by Jack, who was a Navy Lieutenant at the time the photos were taken. He had several tours in Japan prior to this and bought a camera there to pursued that as a hobby. I have been talking with the seller, jack's son.
On photo 3, Jack is leaning against Hg8.
Here is part of a memoir written by his wife:
"I got up at 5:00 o' clock on Wednesday, October 3, to watch the launching from Cape Canaveral of the Mercury-Atlas 8 with Astronaut Wally Schirra.
It was the fifth United States man mission. It was so exciting! I had the radio on all day with reports. He made six orbits taking about nine hours.
I was able to see the pickup on TV in the late afternoon.
Jack's squadron had put in many hours of training in case the capsule didn't land where it was planned to come down.
However it was a perfect landing and came down near the USS Kearsarge. Jack took movies of the capsule floating down, and Schirra being helped out into the lifeboat by a couple of SEALS.
When the lifeboat came near the ship, there was much cheering and applause from the ship's crew.
Wally Schirra was first off the boat and was given a royal welcome.
Soon he was off to sick bay to be carefully checked by the doctors. He received a call from his wife and one from President Kennedy. What a thrilling day!
This next day was just as exciting for Jack because he had to honor to fly to Midway Island to pick up Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter, a close friend of Wally Schirra.
Jack was back with his passenger in less than three hours. Scott Carpenter had been on the previous launch into space. The astronauts had dinner with the Captain.
Because there was no admiral on the ship, Wally and Scott were given the Admiral's stateroom."
