The problem with old family snapshots is they don’t document themselves and, when there’s a note, it assumes knowledge on the part of the viewer. That guy in front resembled myself as a young guy, but he couldn’t have been my father, who enlisted in the Navy after turning 17 at the start of 1945, and was part of the Japan Occupation Force. The men in this picture were soldiers, not sailors.
Regardless of the family connection, whatever that may be, the questions are, what was the ship, and what happened after it reached Guam, assuming it did?
Follow-up: Were they Marines, and not Army? I’m told the caps might tell the story.
Follow-up: Mystery solved. The guy in back looked enough like my late father-in-law that I looked up his brother, also deceased, and that’s him. To my surprise, given the fatigues they were wearing, he was a Navy Seabee.