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Well, as it turns out, your suspicions were well founded. Strangely enough, a good friend of mine knew one of the GIs in the foreground of the photo and was told the following: they are from Co. M, 38th Infantry. As 81mm mortarmen they were told their mortars were not a high enough priority for unloading and were temporarily assigned to Co. L as riflemen and given '03s - at least some of them were - an 81mm mortar platoon of a Heavy Weapons company was authorized 31 carbines, 11 Garands, and 18 pistols. Perhaps those armed with pistols got the '03s. The temp assignment lasted four days until their gear reached them.
Why anyone would even make a wild guess based on what weapons can be seen in the hands of eight or nine GIs is a bit beyond me. Maybe now the eager-to-guess crew will seek out the 38th Regiment's reports to confirm this account - a temp assignment to other duty would almost certainly be worthy of mention in a report. If these guys are serious about historical research I would think they would be satisfied with no less.
So, looks like you're back in Garand territory if your Grandfather was a rifleman. Do you have any documents like a discharge firmly establishing his MOS? Only 45% of rifle company GIs were assigned a Garand, so after the previous muddle, you might defer judgment again until you find a piece of paper.
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Let me go look, I'm pretty sure the deceased papers showed 745. Hang on....
Now I can't find anything with 745 in it. His death report has an Asterisk and says "Combat Infantryman". And there is a box that is checked "Combat" right above an empty box that says "Non-Combat". So whatever his duties were, they were combat duties. I think it narrows it down to Rifleman, 60mm Mortarman or Machine gunner / BAR man. Because he was in E company. I suppose there could've been other jobs though, IDK.
He was turned town at Ft. Benning by a General Beale for OCC class 123. Or would it be OCS. Officer Candidate something or other. He was a corporal at that point.
As far as the photo goes, I'm assuming this is the one you've seen. There are two more very similar, but this one has the best views of rifles. One is evident there are carbines. And some kind of rifle.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...3E2523EW-1.jpg
One guy on the 2ID site is saying the morning reports are the best way, and that the AAR's don't usually have mentions of individuals names.
