Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of Tarzan, visits his first "former" cannibal village during his stay in New Caledonia while covering the war zone in the Pacific as a War Correspondent. 

Mr. Burrough's (sic) stories of the escapades of Tarzan have dealt with native life and villages and have thrilled many of the men, who are now serving the U.S. in the Armed Forces in the South Pacific, in their younger days. 

The famous author commented that heretofore his experiences with headhunters had been synthetic and that he found this village very interesting. 

The natives are now peaceful and many of the work for the United States Army. St. Louis, New Caledonia. 

9 December 1942

Captain Byron W. Albright, Regiment Motor Officer explains special blitz maintenance peep to Mr. Edgar Rice Burroughs (with "C") War Correspondent in the Pacific Area and famous author of Tarzan.

Mr. Burroughs was a member of the 7th Cavalry before the last World War.

In the center is Major Z.T. Wimberly. 

Peeps are new equipment to Burroughs whose troops in his day depended entirely on horses. 

This Peep contains a complete supply of repair units for all vehicles of the Regiment. New Caledonia.
12/12/42

22^o S, 166^o E. Dumbea, New Caledonia, 112th Cavalry

Fellow ERB fan, Chris L. Adams was intrigued by the name "PEEP" referred to in this photo and shared the following research:

After reading the captioning under the jeep photo I would have swore that was a type where it says peep instead of jeep.  I never knew it was called that and that a jeep was the larger truck of the time.  Pretty neato.
https://www.allpar.com/threads/how-the-jeep-got-its-name-instead-of-peep-beep-or-seep.229807/
 

Edgar Rice Burroughs, War Correspondent in the 22^o S, 166^o E. Laboratory of 12nd Signal Photos, viewing shots of New Caledonia. Noumea, New Caledonia. 9 Dec 1942.

Signal Corps Photo #162-7-42-1178. Orig. neg. recieved from Prov. Sig. Co.,Photo Section, APO #502, San Francisco, California. January 1943. Released by BPR, Authority #3, 18 Feb 1943, until printing on case, indicated in red, is deleted. Face deletions cleared by letter from BPR, 20 September 1945.  4x5 orig. neg.  fjh

Mr. Edgar Rice Burroughs gets signature of Major General Rush B. Lincoln in his autograph book. 

Mr. Burroughs has autographs of everyone he meets in his book, private to general. 

 22^o S, 166^o E. Noumea, New Caledonia, First Island Command Headquarters ~ 12/11/42

Ed Burroughs' desire for an active role in the war zone led him to a new goal; after resigning from his duties with BMTC - the civilian corps - he sought to be a war correspondent for the United Press. 

On October 23, 1942 with the approval still not received, Ed wrote in his diary, "Am now all ready to go — almost. I know that, at my age, it is probably a fool thing to do. My decision, then, is not based on faulty judgement. I want the experience. If I don't come back, I am at least definitely expendable. So it won't make any difference. . . ." 

The United Press credentials arrived and on November 2 Ed sent a thank-you letter to old friend George Carlin, of the United Feature Syndicate, who had been a great help in Ed's quest for accreditation. Carlin responded, "Your example in always seeking fresh adventure at an age when most of your contemporaries are content to give up and just stay waiting is an inspiration to me and gives me a goal at which to aim." 

Now an accredited war correspondent at the age of sixty-seven, Burroughs waited for his army approval and assignment to a plane. On November 6 he started his autograph album which he planned to carry with him. Fittingly, the first entries were by longtime friend, Captain Phil Bird and fellow United Press correspondent, William Tyree.