Private James Hendrix of the 101st Airborne ....

[Andy Volk]

The stuff that turns up on Facebook is occasionally amazing.

Private James Hendrix of the 101st Airborne, playing guitar at Fort Campbell Kentucky 1962.

[James Allison]

That's Jimi alright but no jump wings and the wrong hat for a paratrooper. Looks like he just got out of Basic...

[Mike Neer]

James were you a Screaming Eagle? My father was and we lived at Fort Campbell from '62-'64 (though I was born in '63). Here is his patch, which I keep here at my desk:

[Ken Morgan]

I'm told this was while training for airborne, so he would not have his jump regalia yet.

Either way, Hendrix with a Dano...cool.

[Ron Whitfield]

One of my favorite Jimi pix, along with the outdoors color shot after getting the Dano. I understand that guitar still exists, hopefully remaining in safe care.
Jimi..., how could anyone be that cool?

For those who need more like the above shot http://crosstowntorrents.org/gallery/in ... 778d0355d6

[Howard Kalish]

Really cool picture. So, who's the drummer and where is he now?

[Bill Hatcher]

hmmmm....no cord coming out of the dano?

[Tim Herbert]

The Dano's upside down, so the jack is on "top" - I think I see the cable coming out from behind Jimi's arm. Being a lefty didn't seem to slow him down any!

[Ron Whitfield]

At the Jimi site I linked to above, I once got an interesting discussion going over whether he was born right or left handed, and how he then developed as a player. Out of a combination of reasons he was comfortable playing right or left handed and had a fuller knowledge of the fretboard than most players.

[Joachim Kettner]

Simon Nichol from the group Fairport Convention:
He played Richard's guitar, Richard (Thompson) would grab mine and I would grab a spare to play rhythm. I saw Jimi play it right handed a few times, and he was also quite capable of playing left-handed a guitar which was still strung right handed; improvising on a guitar strung the wrong way was obviously no problem for him. He played with tremendous freeedom.

[Doug Beaumier]

A few more...

[chris ivey]

does this remind anyone of that clint eastwood movie where he's the old hero drill sgt. and the guitat player dude in his squadron has some jimi-like features?

[Joachim Kettner]

Fact is that he wanted to get away from the drill. He found out after awhile that it wasn't the right occupation for him. He told the doctors some stories, so they finally let him leave. Sorry, but that's the truth.

[Ron Whitfield]

Those 2 years were very important to his life, it was in the military that he derived many basic needs and then met bassist Billy Cox.
His pre-Experience years are very interesting.

[John Peay]

James were you a Screaming Eagle? My father was and we lived at Fort Campbell from '62-'64 (though I was born in '63).

Mike, I was born in Clarksville, Tennessee in 1960, and grew up there. Clarksville is right across the state line from Fort Campbell, just a few miles. In fact now it's all basically one town of about 100,000 or so.

Jimi lived in Clarksville for a short while after getting out of the army, played some early gigs there, and bought a guitar (an Ibanez I think) from Collins Music Store, just a few miles from the house I grew up in.

Also, within about a mile of the Collins store is Frank Sutton's boyhood home (Sgt. Carter of "Gomer Pyle USMC" fame).

A bit of topic drift here but hey, we're talking Armed Forces, right, ha!