I believe Josh said there is some evidence that Joe toured military facilities after his playing time with Harlan. I have no evidence of this, nor do I have any newspaper accounts of Joe doing this. Trust me, if Jackson had toured a facility like this during the war, it would have made a newspaper around the country. The war was over by December and I don't see Joe needed to make a rah rah tour for the troops. In answer to Josh's request to see if I had any articles proving Joe was in SC or GA in December of 1918, I'll look into my articles and see if I can round anything up. I have over 20 Gb of digital newspaper copy from this time period, will be easy to search that, but I also have 4, 4 drawer filing cabinets of printed out newspaper copy and that will take much longer to dig through. Sometimes the Savannah paper did make mention that Joe was back in town, but I do not remember if they said it after this return from Wilmington. Joe's niece Maggi Hall said he returned to Savannah for the winter after this time with Harlan, course that doesn't mean he didn't go back north for a photo op at Fort Meade, but I do not believe this photo captures that moment.
For the final time, to the OP, Joe NEVER served in the military, that is documented fact, shipbuilding was and is not considered a military job. Lord know, I would love for this photo to be Joe Jackson, it would give me another item to research, but the reality is.....it's not Joe. Everyone wants an original photo of Joe to sell for big money, I get that. I've seen many of these so-called Joe Jackson photos in my 33 years of doing this. What you have is a neat photo of some military guys during World War I, a great photo in and of itself........I just don't think the Shoeless one is in the photo.
Mike Nola
Official Historian
Shoeless Joe Jackson's Virtual Hall of Fame
http://www.blackbetsy.com