Individual Notes
Note for: Jean Ellen Fox, 4 APR 1924 - 8 JAN 1990
Index
Graduation: Place: Rochester, Olmsted , Minnesota
Occupation: Registered Nurse
Event: I2296
Type: REFI
Religion: Los Altos United Methodist
Birth Note: Obituary lists date of birth as 4 Apr 1924. Program of memorial service lists 4 Apr 1924 as well. Bible shows 4 Apr 1924 also.
Death Note: Memorial service conducted on Friday, 8 Jan 1990 in Long Beach.
Obituary and memorial program in scrapbook.
Cremation Note: Ashes scattered 3 miles off San Pedro CA
Social Security Number Note: Last Name First Name Middle Birth Date Mother Maiden Father Last Sex Birth Place Death Place Residence Death Date SSN Age Post-ems
KAUFHOLD JEAN E 04/04/1924 THOMPKINS Fox F MINNESOTA LOS ANGELES(19) 01/08/1990 562-28-4627 65 yrs Add
Individual Note: Taken in 1946
Individual Note: Wedding Day
Individual Note: February 19, 1983
Individual Notes
Note for: Albert Kay Thompson, 3 DEC 1915 - 11 SEP 2000
Index
Graduation: Date: 1933
Place: Harvey High School, Harvey, Wells, North Dakota
Note:
After graduation, he went to work at same Ice company in Harvey ND where his father worked.
From Geographic Nameserver (http://www.mit.edu/);
Harvey, Wells County, North Dakota; located at 47:46:11 N, 099:56:06 W with an elevation of 1600 feet and reported population of 2527. Postal code 58341.
Occupation: Policeman, Security Guard (IBM), and Auto Salesman
Census: Date: 1920
Place: Holt Co, Nebraska
Note:
Age 4 in Census
Census: Date: 1930
Place: Nells Twnship, Harvey City, Nells, North Dakota
Event: Type: Military
Date: BET 1943 AND 1945
Place: Attu, Aleutian Islands, Alaska
Note: A.K. Thompson was a member of "C" Company, Platoon 5, of the 138th Naval Construction Battalion (Maintenance)
138TH BATTALION The 138th NCB was formed at Attu from personnel of CBD 1018 and CBMUs 547 and 556 on Feb. 1, 1944. On March 9, CBMU 576 arrived at Attu and was absorbed into the Battalion. On Oct. 20, a group of 102 men were transferred from the 138th to the 68th, while 199 men were transferred from the 68th to the 138th. A detachment of three officers and 144 men were sent to NOB, Adak, for temporary duty on Jan. 25, 1945. This unit returned to the Battalion in time to ship back to the States in May. The outfit reported at Camp Parks on May 28, 1945 and on June 16 was inactivated.
A.K. Thompson was discharged from the US Navy on November 6, 1945.
Event: I2303
Type: REFI
Event: in the Seabeas between 1943 and 1945
Type: MIL_HIST
Event: in the notes
Type: Timline
Note: Custom Timeline For Albert K Thompson
1915 to 2000
1899-1923: 6th Cholera pandemic from before birth until age 8
1910-1936: Reign of King George V (Windsor) from before birth until age 21
1913-1920: Woodrow Wilson president of US from before birth until age 5
1914-1919: World War I from before birth until age 4
1915: Einstein's Theory of Relativity at age 0
1916: Sonar at age 1
1916: Irish Easter Rebellion at age 1
1917: US enters WWI at age 2
1917: Russian revolution at age 2
1918-1920: Flu epidemic - 25 million plus die from age 3 to 5
1918-1933: Prohibition from age 3 to 18
1919: Shortwave Radio at age 4
1919: League of Nations instantiated at age 4
1920-1929: Roaring 20's from age 5 to 14
1920: Women receive right to vote in USA at age 5
1920: Palestine established at age 5
1921-1924: Warren G Harding president of US from age 6 to 9
1922: Insulin made available to diabetics at age 7
1925-1928: Calvin Coolidge president of US from age 10 to 13
1925: Scopes trial on Evolutionary Theory at age 10
1926: Sound in Movies at age 11
1927: 1st transAtlantic solo flight - Lindbergh at age 12
1927: Holland Tunnel opens (New York City) at age 12
1928: Geiger Counter at age 13
1928: Video Recordings at age 13
1928: Penicillin invented by Sir Alexander Fleming at age 13
1928: Television at age 13
1929-1939: Great Depression from age 14 to 24
1929: Stock Market Crash at age 14
1929-1932: Herbert Hoover president of US from age 14 to 17
1930: Pluto Discovered at age 15
1931-1933: Chinese-Japanese war (2) from age 16 to 18
1933: Soviet communist party purge at age 18
1933-1945: Franklin D Roosevelt president of US from age 18 to 30
1933: Armstrong invents FM modulation at age 18
1933: Radio Astronomy at age 18
1935: Dustbowl at age 20
1935-1936: Abyssinian war from age 20 to 21
1936: Helicopter at age 21
1936-1952: Reign of King George VI (Windsor) from age 21 to 37
1936: Spanish Civil War at age 21
1936: Reign of King Edward VIII (Windsor) at age 21
1937: Nylon (by DuPont) at age 22
1937-1945: Chinese-Japanese war (3) from age 22 to 30
1938: Germany annexes Austria at age 23
1939-1945: World War II from age 24 to 30
1939: Digital Computer at age 24
1939: Aircraft Jet Engine invented (by Ohain) at age 24
1940: Color Television at age 25
1940: 1st black general in US army at age 25
1941-1945: Manhatten Project from age 26 to 30
1942: Magnetic Recording Tape at age 27
1942: Nuclear Reactor at age 27
1945: United Nations formed at age 30
1945: US drops the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at age 30
1945: Hypertext at age 30
1945-1952: Harry S Truman president of US from age 30 to 37
1946-1989: The Cold War from age 31 to 74
1946: The Bikini at age 31
1947: Transistor at age 32
1947: UN partitions Palestine to Jewish and Arab sections at age 32
1948: NATO formed at age 33
1948: Arabs attack Israel on the day it is inaugurated at age 33
1948: 33 1/3 rpm musical recordings at age 33
1948: Israel inaugurated as state at age 33
1949: Apartheid policy in South Africa at age 34
1949: 45 rpm musical recordings at age 34
1949: Soviets detonate first nuclear bomb at age 34
1950-1953: Korean War from age 35 to 38
1950-1954: McCarthyism from age 35 to 39
1950: Bunche 1st black to win Nobel Peace Prize at age 35
1950: World pop. est. at 2.4 billion at age 35
1951: Electricity from Atomic Power at age 36
1952-2000: Reign of Queen Elizabeth II (Windsor) from age 37 to 85
1952: 1st Thermonuclear Device Detonated at age 37
1953-1960: Dwight D Eisenhower president of US from age 38 to 45
1954: Racial segregation in schools ruled unconstitutional at age 39
1955: Fiber Optics (by Kapany) at age 40
1955: Warsaw pact formed at age 40
1956: Ocean liner Andrea Doria collides with the Stockholm, sinks at age 41
1957: Sputnik Launched - 1st (artificial) satellite at age 42
1958: FM Stereo Broadcasts at age 43
1958: Stereo LP recordings come into usage at age 43
1958: US space agency (NASA) established at age 43
1958: Integrated Circuit at age 43
1959: Alaska enters the union - 49th at age 44
1959: 1st nuclear powered merchant vessel, Savannah at age 44
1959: Hawaii enters the union - 50th at age 44
1960: Laser at age 45
1960: World subsurface circumnavigation by US sub Triton at age 45
1960: Pantyhose at age 45
1960: 1st weather satellite (Tiros I) at age 45
1961-1970: 7th Cholera pandemic from age 46 to 55
1961: First human in space - Yuri Gagarin at age 46
1961: 1st US manned spaceflight - Alan Shephard at age 46
1961-1963: John F Kennedy president of US from age 46 to 48
1962-1965: Vatican II from age 47 to 50
1962: Cuban missile crisis at age 47
1963: Compact Cassette Recordings at age 48
1963: 1st artificial heart at age 48
1963-1968: Lyndon B Johnson president of US from age 48 to 53
1963: Pres. Kennedy Assassinated at age 48
1964-1975: Vietnam War from age 49 to 60
1964: US civil rights bill at age 49
1965: 1st spacewalks (US, USSR) at age 50
1965: Blacks riot in Watts neighborhood, Los Angeles at age 50
1966: 8-track tape players at age 51
1966: 1st soft landings on moon (US, USSR) at age 51
1967: Physicist John Wheeler coins the term Black Hole at age 52
1967: Marshall 1st black supreme court justice at age 52
1967: Six day war: Israel-Arabs at age 52
1967-1970: Nigerian civil war from age 52 to 55
1967: 1st human heart transplant at age 52
1968: Martin Luther King assassinated at age 53
1968: Robert Kennedy assassinated at age 53
1969: Woodstock Music Festival at age 54
1969: Moon Landing - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin at age 54
1969-1974: Richard M. Nixon president of US from age 54 to 59
1970: Microprocessor at age 55
1970: Nat. Guard murders 4 students at Kent State at age 55
1971: Intel ships 1st uProcessor: the 4004 at age 56
1971: Pakistani civil war at age 56
1973: The Internet at age 58
1973: October war (Israel-Arabic nations) at age 58
1974-1976: Gerald Ford president of US from age 59 to 61
1974: Pres. Nixon resigns in disgrace at age 59
1975: Ebola virus appears - 90 percent lethal at age 60
1975: The 1st home computer: The Altair 8800a at age 60
1976: VHS Video Recordings at age 61
1976: Whites accept principle of black majority rule in S. Africa at age 61
1976: American Bicentennial at age 61
1977: Neutron bomb at age 62
1977-1980: James Earl Carter Jr president of US from age 62 to 65
1978: Laserdisc video recordings at age 63
1978: 1st test-tube baby at age 63
1979: Three Mile Island nuclear event at age 64
1979: Margaret Thatcher 1st Woman Prime Minister in UK at age 64
1980: Mount St. Helens Erupts at age 65
1981: IBM PC ships at age 66
1981-1988: Ronald Reagan president of US from age 66 to 73
1981: 1st space shuttle flight - Columbia at age 66
1981: 1st female supreme court justice at age 66
1982: 1st geneticly engineered product - insulin at age 67
1983: Bluford 1st black in space at age 68
1983: Compact Disks at age 68
1983: Pioneer 10 leaves the solar system at age 68
1984: HIV determined to be cause of AIDs at age 69
1984: Apple Macintosh Ships at age 69
1985: Amiga Computer Ships at age 70
1986: Shuttle Challenger explodes at age 71
1986: Mir space station deployed at age 71
1986: Chernobyl power plant melts down at age 71
1987: 2000th satellite launched: USSR's Cosmos at age 72
1988: Turin shroud carbon dated from 1330 AD at age 73
1989-1992: George Bush president of US from age 74 to 77
1989: Pons and Fleischmann claim cold fusion at age 74
1989: Breakup of the Soviet Union at age 74
1989: Fall of Berlin Wall at age 74
1989: Powell is 1st black chairmain joint US chiefs of staff at age 74
1990: World Wide Web at age 75
1990: Hubble space telescope deployed at age 75
1991-2000: 8th Cholera pandemic from age 76 to 85
1991: Iraq attacks Kuwait, US Attacks Iraq at age 76
1992: Blacks riot in South Central neighborhood, Los Angeles at age 77
1993-2000: William Clinton president of US from age 78 to 85
1993: Terrorist bombing of World Trade Center at age 78
1995: Terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City at age 80
1996: DVD video recordings at age 81
1997: Mars pathfinder lands at age 82
1997: Cloning living beings at age 82
1998: Pres. Clinton Impeached December 19th. at age 83
1998: US attacks Iraq, again at age 83
1999: US attacks Bosnia at age 84
2000: North Pole ice melts - 1.5 km of open water in August at age 85
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Event: Type: Geograph
Date: ABT 1940
Place: Aleutians
Note:
Chapter 6 - Aleutians; War Years, 1940 - 43
A look at polar projection maps of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres is quite revealing. There is very little land-mass between the 50th and 70th southern parallels. There is considerable landmass between the 50th and 70th northern parallels, and parts of it are heavily populated. The northern rims of both the eastern and western hemispheres were a challenge to the early venturing peoples. Man's curiosity, and the connectivity ingredients, land, ice, and navigable waters, made the northern rims a logical challenge in the early part of the 20th century to the air faring descendants of the original seafarers.
Conquest and hegemony are other words to which that geography contributed. Mankind's deadliest wars have occurred in the northern hemispheres. Most of World War II, and the Cold War nuclear stand off that followed, were waged in the Northern Hemisphere.
Travel distance between major population centers is minimized by use of great circle routes. North of the Equator, these routes arch toward the North Pole. In 1941, the development of the strategic aviation advantages of the north Pacific rim lagged behind its geographic cousin rimming the north Atlantic. It follows that Alaska's challenges and its dangers were less charted.
While the U.S. and the USSR gazed at each other across the Bering Strait, and each speculated how it matched up against the other, Japan, actively antagonistic to both countries, made the first overt move.
The Aleutian/Alaskan area, along with Panama and Hawaii, were part of the western defensive region in the 1939 war plans of the United States. With the exceptions of Sitka, Kodiak and Dutch Harbor, the U.S. Navy, though posturing proprietary in its stated domain over defense of the Aleutian Chain of islands, could hardly claim that it had demonstrated a high priority in implementing its avowed responsibilities. It took a United States Army officer and his superior on the West Coast of the "lower forty eight" to give the U.S. military presence in Alaska's mainland and then the Aleutian Chain a major pre-war shot-in-the-arm. The Department of the Army and its U.S. Army Air Corps, in the main, were no more enamored of Alaska than the Navy. Fortunately, Lieutenant General DeWitt, USA, in charge of the U.S. Western Defense Command, picked Colonel Simon Buckner, USA, to go to Alaska to implement a plan for the strategic military development of the area.
Colonel Buckner arrived in Anchorage, Alaska in July 1940. The U.S. can be thankful that Buckner had a vision for the strategic military position that the United States possessed in its almost orphan territory. Buckner could see that the challenges in creating a base support structure were going to be monumental. The U.S. Navy had made progress with its own effort, but that effort had been centered on the ability of its patrol aircraft to land on the water.
Simon Buckner soon realized one of the many paradoxes of his new command responsibilities. Alaska loved the airplane. Its bush pilots, another distinct breed of pilots like the barnstormers, made things happen in Alaska and their work was appreciated. They moved supplies to outposts that were not reachable any other way. Often these were life saving medical serums and life giving birth supports for newborn babies struggling to live. Those pilots adapted to the region, using skis and pontoons on their aircraft when required. The paradox was that the canny adaptive skills of the bush pilots meant that facilities like paved airfields were not built. Too hard to build and too costly. There were other ways to do it, particularly where budgets were limited.
Buckner, who might have turned out to be a regiments and battalions and divisions kind of Army officer, saw the wisdom of the airplane. He appreciated and used the skill of the bush pilots and at the same time began an effort to build airfields and air support facilities. This ground-trained officer was even handed in his relationships with the Army Air Corps and the U.S. Navy. Where interests coincided, and the other parties were dedicated to the objective, he worked with Navy and Army Air Corps personnel to get a job done that he saw needed to be done. He was not addicted to personal fame. But where the other services held back, he moved on to get his airfields built.
We are not going to be complete in our citations of the air facilities developed in the Alaska/Aleutian region as the result of Buckner's energies and savvy. He found believers like an Army Air Corps pilot, one Colonel Eareckson, and a Navy Captain named Ralph Parker. His passion, animated by his accurate evaluation of Japanese military intentions, was contagious to his small contingent of strong men. Buckner was no purist. He occasionally was moved to diverting funds from other worthy purposes to direct use in enhancing the region's military preparedness. His vision was disciplined. He learned the territory and conducted a survey of sites "out the chain" which would be suitable for airfields. Buckner's effort to develop a defense scheme for the U.S. position in the north Pacific rim resulted in the following airfield developments
Elmendorf Field at Anchorage;
Ladd Field at Fairbanks;
strengthening the defenses at Dutch Harbor;
an airfield later known as Ft. Randall at Cold Bay, Alaska on Umnak Island;
an airfield later known as Ft. Glenn on Umnak Island.
Don Fortune, in later civilian life a San Francisco newspaper editor and author, learned about the Gulf of Alaska first hand while serving as an ordinary seaman on board a 1362-ton ship delivering supplies to Cold Bay, Alaska in 1942. A "coaster", in seagoing terms, the SS Taku had become the USAT (U.S. Army Transport) Taku by the time ordinary seaman Don Fortune made his way aboard for duty during several supply trips between Seattle, Washington and its navigable bay on the south side of Unimak Island. It was called Cold Bay.
Here , Don Fortune provides some details about one sea trip in those storm-driven Alaskan waters in 1942 before he joined the Army.
"My view of Cold Bay in 1942 was limited to the dock area, so I got the impression that almost everything was underground. I was also told(in 1942) that the Japanese did not know of Ft. Randall's existence. SS Taku became USAT Taku when the Army took it over. On one trip, a storm hit the ship that almost sank the vessel and resulted in my being carried off in a canvas wrapping. The crew quarters were aft and above deck. The black gang's quarters were on the portside, deckhands on the starboard. ("Black gang" is sea lingo for the men assigned to the engineering spaces of a ship, probably originating when the propulsion fuel was coal.) Their cabins were abandoned and I was told later that the doors were torn off their hinges. The storm was so powerful that life boats were stove in and useless. Superstructure was hammered. The ship could not make headway. I was carried midship to the Second Mate's cabin, and left soaked and badly bruised for what I was told was almost 36 hours. Finally, the skipper pulled into Juneau, Alaska, possibly against orders. I was wrapped in canvas and carried top deck. The men carrying me had to twist and turn through the officer's mess and other narrow spaces. It hurt. I was lowered to a launch and taken to the hospital. The Taku spent some time in dry dock after it arrived back in Seattle."
Don Fortune's skipper on the Taku must have been ahead of his time in what we now call "human factors." Putting in at a port like Juneau on the way from Cold Bay to Seattle is not the same as stopping off at a port along the way. Juneau represented a major detour. Almost landlocked on the eastern side of the Gulf, Juneau was possibly the only alternative choice to Seattle in terms of hospital facilities. Looking at sea routes, Juneau was likely just a few miles closer than Seattle for the Taku. That trip into Juneau was made strictly because a man was injured and the time, measured in hours, that could be saved in getting him to a hospital were deemed essential
Don Fortune's glimpse of the rigors of passage across the Gulf of Alaska introduce the reader to the storm factor which influenced so many missions that I would later be called on to fly in that area. A" coaster" type vessel would find real challenges in those turbulent sea states. A lot of storm trouble is generated where the Japanese current meets the frozen northern tundra and its adjacent waters. For aviators, an added factor south of the chain is that at least until 1948 there were no radio aids to air navigation in that airspace. An airman's aircraft had better be self-sufficient electronically. Thankfully, the PB4Y-2s assigned to our squadron in 1946 were well equipped.
After an interregnum imposed by the Japanese occupation of Attu and Kiska, Buckner's airfield vision was extended to Adak, Amchitka, Attu and Shemya.
Some exciting, some bizarre, and some tragic events of war occurred between a Japanese fleet's first attack on Dutch Harbor onJune2, 1942 and Japan's occupation of Attu and Kiska, which began just five confused days later on June 7. I would refer readers to "The Thousand-Mile War" by Brian Garfield. My 1981 edition of Garfield's book is labeled a "Bantam War Book" and has a Navy PBY on its cover, but inside one discovers that first publication was by Doubleday in 1969. Garfield not only details the attack by the Japanese and the defense by U.S. forces, but includes the orders received by the Japanese fleet commander during his Aleutian attack operation to send his carriers south to rendezvous with the now defeated main body of Japan's Midway attack force. Those orders, never carried out, allow author Garfield the opportunity to tell his readers in a masterful way, how the war was going in the Pacific in the summer of 1942.
As part of the northern prong of its attack on Midway Island, the Japanese, on 7 June 1942, occupied Kiska and Attu, the latter out at the end of the Aleutian chain of islands. This occupation was preceded by Japanese carrier aircraft raids on the U.S. Navy installations at Dutch Harbor, located on Unalaska Island.
In the context of the six years of active hostilities in World War II, Japan's stay in the Aleutians turned out to be relatively brief. On June 7, 1942, the Japanese commenced landing on Attu and Kiska and quickly captured or killed the occupants there. By the end of May 1943, after a bloody three weeks, the killing of most of the Japanese defenders and the capture of but a handful, the Japanese were eliminated from Attu.
A Japanese objective in the Aleutian sub-strategy to its attack on Midway included bombing attacks on Dutch Harbor, primarily to make the U.S. Navy believe that its Dutch Harbor seaplane base installations were an occupation target. From code breaking, Admiral Nimitz at Pearl Harbor knew that their basic Aleutian intention was to make occupation force landings on Adak, Kiska and Attu to the west. Overlooked by the Japanese until its forces had undergone air surveillance and resistance from islands not believed by them to be militarized, was a U.S. Army Air Corps air base on Umnak Island and another at Cold Harbor on Unimak Island. These were part of Buckner's handiwork. The disturbing discovery that there were gaps in its intelligence about U.S. airfields in the Aleutians very likely led the Japanese high command to its decision to abandon the Adak landings and concentrate on Attu and Kiska. One does not have to reach for the moon to credit Buckner's vision here. Dismay that their intelligence had not revealed an important U.S. presence created a major change in Japan's objectives. This change left the door open to a major opportunity for the United States. That opportunity was Adak, and Adak ultimately became the pivot of the U.S. Navy's air and sea operations in the Aleutians.
Both the United States and the Japanese had defensive strategy objectives in the Aleutians. Neither figured to invade the other's heartland by use of the Aleutian chain as steppingstones.
The Japanese sea force approaching the Gulf of Alaska in early June,1942, consisted of cruisers, destroyers, an oiler, transports with troops, and of prime importance to U.S. commanders, two aircraft carriers. Their first mission was to attack Dutch Harbor before the main body of the Japanese Fleet, which included its four large carriers, attacked Midway Island. Japan's military strategists intended to influence Admiral Nimitz and our Pacific command to send forces north to the Aleutians to defend against an invasion there and thereby weaken his Midway defense options. Nimitz did send a small cruiser/destroyer force north under Rear Admiral Theobold. But, he sent no U.S. carriers. Nimitz had none to spare.
The U.S. Navy base at Dutch Harbor in Unalaska Island west of Unimak Island supported PBY
Catalina patrol seaplanes, and their seaplane tenders. There were fuel storage facilities, some radio communications towers, and a detachment of U.S. Marines. It was defended by anti aircraft gunnery installations. These were well dug in, but of insufficient range and without modern fire control. Four-stack U.S. destroyers dating from World War I were also based there but their gun systems were also outdated.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers had prepared and put into operation for the U.S. Army Air Corps, primitive airfield installations on Unimak Island and on Umnak Island. At these bases were some P-40 Warhawks, B-26Marauders and a few B-17 Flying Fortresses. The airfields were "paved" with steel matting that gave ground under the weight of the heavier aircraft, setting up a kind of sine wave under the heavier aircraft as these moved down the "runways."
For the Alaska part of its defense plan against the major and multi-pronged Japanese thrust centered on Midway Island, the U.S. was plagued by a hastily thrown together tri-service command. The Army commander was General Simon Buckner, just promoted from Colonel. The Army Air Corps commander was General Butler, in command of what was becoming the XI Air Force. The Navy commander and ostensibly in overall command for the expected Japanese assault on the Aleutians was the newly-arrived Radm Theobold, in charge of the cruiser-destroyer force that Nimitz sent north from Hawaii. A Navy Captain named Leslie Gehres had been in place for some time at Kodiak in charge of Kodiak and Dutch Harbor.
The three flag commanders, Buckner, Butler and Theobold, had no experience with each other and were never able to effect a unified command for this early June 1942 challenge from the Japanese. Their remotely located superiors did not help in defining the command situation although in Admiral Nimitz' defense, he was busy preparing for the main thrust at Midway. Finally, the complete lack of any Alaskan communications infrastructure left the commanders there without even the option of creating an ad hoc plan.
From code-breaking, Nimitz knew what the Japanese were up to with their thrust in the north. He was certain that their main effort would be directed against Midway. He sent the small cruiser-destroyer force north under Radm Theobold in reaction to the intelligence he had.
Here entered one of those nuances of war whose importance could not be understood until many years had passed. Nimitz had provided Theobold with accurate and valuable information. Admiral Nimitz' intelligence was coming directly from an almost providentially provided code-breaking team. The briefings in Hawaii were sometimes conducted with Nimitz and his staff in the physical presence of those who had actually gathered the information and defined its relevance. Nimitz could directly question this team and challenge them. He could get "in their face" in later parlance, and therefore had a rare opportunity to evaluate the worth of the information. To his credit, he believed their conclusions and took full advantage of both the direct human transfer of information and the intelligence information itself. Our sea defense for The Battle of Midway was undertaken with this knowledge. Pertinent portions of this intelligence were passed along to other commanders who had not been personally involved in the briefings. The difference incredibility between the direct reception from code breakers that Nimitz enjoyed, and the passed-along information to commanders like Theobold, was striking.
Not too much had gone right for the Navy since December 7, 1941.ItsAsiatic Fleet had been decimated, the Philippines lost, and Coral Sea could hardly have been called a victory. No, to Theobold, this intelligence was like all intelligence, to be locally evaluated with some hedging as to its accuracy. Consequently, in its defense of the Aleutian Islands, U.S. armed forces in Alaska never took full advantage of the intelligence information that Nimitz possessed and passed along. And which Nimitz himself used so effectively at Midway.
At this juncture, the U.S. Alaskan defense team faltered badly. No unified command, no agreement on defensive strategies, depreciated intelligence and totally abysmal communications made the effort almost ludicrous. But as I noted, great deeds were performed, some with tragic consequences. With the onset of a series of fast moving weather fronts, the U.S. defense of the Aleutians turned into chaos. We actually came out rather well.
For their part, the Japanese had good communications, experienced ship handlers and skilled pilots. Their Admiral astutely used the adverse weather to the best advantage that could be achieved in atrociously bad weather conditions. His celestial navigation information was outdated by the time his task force arrived off Aleutian Island shores. His location, therefore, with respect to his preliminary Dutch Harbor bombing objective was not as good as he would have hoped. What he did possess was nearly precise knowledge of the location of the leading edge of the weather front he was able to hide in. This was accurate enough for him to control the time he would be able to poke his force out ahead of the front and launch aircraft. A Navy PBY on a long duration patrol mission did spot the Japanese force through a break in the over cast and the Japanese knew they had been spotted but because they did not identify the type aircraft they were not able to even speculate about its point of origin. The Japanese task force was able to mount two air attacks on Dutch Harbor during which the Japanese pilots encountered almost no aircraft resistance over their target and only futile AA fire.
But, the unexpected discovery by the Japanese of U.S. aircraft sorties from Umnak Island, which aircraft interfered with recovery of their aircraft aboard their carriers, was certainly a factor in their abandonment of Adak as an occupation objective.
By June 8, 1943, not only had the U.S. retaken Attu, but then had been able to rapidly developed operable facilities for aircraft, ships and submarines there. For at least one critical aircraft operation, the atoll, Shemya, just to the east, was also quickly put into service. Shemya could recover aircraft when all other airfields were shut down..
Key events in the year-long effort to dislodge the Japanese had been the Navy's occupation of Adak on August 30, 1942 and Amchitka on January 12, 1943. At Adak, an aircraft runway was operating in an incredible twelve days and on Amchitka it took about five weeks to begin flight operations. In March 1943, there occurred a stirring sea battle that marked the end of any Japanese hopes to retain a foot hold on U.S. soil and in May 1943 with the U.S. landings, the beginning of the end for the Japanese.
Admiral Theobald had won an important top level argument that Adak was the proper location for a base from which to support air operations against the Japanese on Kiska. The final element that tipped the scales toward Adak and away from Tanaga, the site that others favored, was that Adak could become an air and sea base, with supply available from the sea. The belated discovery by the Japanese of our expanding facility on Adak led them to send troop reinforcements north to Attu and Kiska. For its part, the U.S. added motor torpedo boats to their Adak inventory of "assets." Admiral Theobold then pushed for and won approval to occupy Amchitka.
The interservice command structure, if it could be dignified as such, vibrated enough over the Amchitka decision, wise though it was, to shake Admiral Theobold off the tree. Rear Admiral Thomas Kinkaid was appointed as his replacement.
General Buckner's tactical involvement was waning. The task force structure for the Army's amphibious assault operation that took Amchitka and would retake Attu did not include him in the chain of command. That did not appear to dismay Buckner whose advice was sought by all involved, and whose advice was considerately and effectively given and put to good use. Interestingly, General Butler, who had gradually built the strength of his XI Air Force, was also given force command over the Navy's Catalina patrol squadrons. Butler, too, was not a part of the command structure for dislodging the Japanese from their Aleutian successes. Unlike Buckner, General Butler remained a more aloof figure during most of the important U.S. sea, land, and air campaigns in the Aleutiansin1943. The land base limitations, especially lack of air navigation, air traffic control and weather forecasting facilities hamstrung effective use of the U.S. air capability.
The sea force that Admiral Theobald had brought north from Hawaii underwent a revolving door change of ships though its strength remained relatively stable. Theobald had set up his command ashore at Kodiak and had eventually placed Rear Admiral Charles McMorris in command of the force afloat. By March of 1943, under Kinkaid, McMorris had established an intervention patrol west of Attu.
The Japanese under Vice Admiral Hosagaya had mounted a number of sea supply efforts for Attu and Kiska and even had one group of ships with personnel detailed to occupy Shemya. (Attu had proved to have a very resistant terrain for the Japanese to tame into an airstrip. Shemya undoubtedly looked more malleable in that respect.) But, in its final major effort, the Japanese would be thwarted as the McMorris seaforce, though under strength in comparison with the strong escort force that Hosagaya brought along on his final major supply attempt, aggressively dulled all Japanese appetite for twitting the Yankee in the Aleutian Island chain. The Battle of the Komandorski Islands is an event that marked a change in the fortunes of war in the North Pacific.
This sea battle took place roughly along Latitude 53 degrees, 20 minutes North, about midway between Attu and Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula, in a sea space just south of the Komandorski Islands. McMorris' force consisted of the 1923 vintage light cruiser, USS Richmond CL-9, on which McMorris flew his flag, the thirteen-year old heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City CA-25, and four destroyers, the USS Bailey DD-492, USS Coghlan DD-606, the USS Dale DD-353, and the USS MonaghanDD-354. For those who have read my earlier book, "Joining The War at Sea," Bailey, DD-492, commissioned in May of 1942, was a Bristol class 1620-ton destroyer. Coghlan was closely related in configuration to Bailey while Dale and Monaghan were older, commissioned in 1935. Salt Lake City was notable in its configuration for this battle-she sported ten 8-inch, 55-cal. guns, two more than most of our heavy cruisers of that era. Salt Lake City had just been repaired and re-crewed from wounds incurred in an early South Pacific seabattle against the Japanese. The Japanese under Vice Admiral Hosagaya had two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and five destroyers. This force constituted all of the Japanese Fifth Fleet warships that Hosagaya could pry loose. These were escorting two fast, armed, merchant cruisers and one slower transport. These latter three carried the supplies and reinforcements for Attu and Kiska. The heavy cruiser Nachi took the lead for the Japanese in the first phase of the melee that ensued and when Nachi became temporarily disabled by Salt Lake City and Bailey gunfire, Maya, their other 8-inch gun cruiser took over.
In his Volume VII, "Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls," of the History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Samuel Eliot Morison sets the picture that now unfolded
"At 0730 March 26 (1943), an hour before sunrise, this (the McMorris)task group lay 180 miles west of Attu and 100 miles south of the nearest Komandorski Island. The ships were strung out in scouting line six miles long, steering N. by E. Destroyer Coghlan was in the van, flagship Richmond next, followed by Bailey flying Captain Rigg's (Commodore of the squadron from which Bailey had been drawn) pennant, then Dale. Salt Lake City steamed next to last in the column, Monaghan in the rear. They were making 15 knots and zigzagging. Temperature was just above the freezing point."
Eyewitness Lieutenant (jg) Stanley Hogshead, USN, in charge of the main battery plotting room on the destroyer Bailey tells what happened next. (Stan Hogshead graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy on June 19,1942and immediately reported to the destroyer, USS Bailey, DD-492.) Built in the Boston Navy Yard, DD-492 was brand new when Stan arrived. She was 347 feet long, with a beam of 36-feet and a draft of 17-feet. She had four 5" 38-cal. dual-purpose guns, two twin mount 40-mm AA guns and eight 20-mm AA guns. She carried depth charges and torpedoes. Her design complement was 276 officers and men but she had over 300 aboard for the Komandorskis' action. The following paragraphs in quotes were adapted from a talk that Captain Stanley Hogshead, USN (Ret) gave to an audience of veterans in Californiaon February 7, 2001. In Hogshead's account, ship's names are not italicized.
"The Battle of the Komandorskis of March 26, 1943
Bailey departed the U.S. east coast and after transiting the Panama Canal, arrived in San Francisco. We were instructed to draw foul weather gear. That was a strong clue as to where we were headed, cold waters, probably Alaska. We then departed for Kodiak Island, Alaska. We fueled, took on provisions, and thence proceeded to Dutch Harbor. After fueling there and taking on stores we were formed into a Task Force (Task Group 16.6) with an older heavy cruiser, the Salt Lake City with8-inch guns, and an older light cruiser, the Richmond, with 6-in guns. In our task force, there were three other destroyers, the Dale, the Coghlan, and the Monaghan."
"My destroyer, the Bailey, had the destroyer screen Commander, Commodore Riggs on board. General Quarters on a Navy vessel begins with an alarm designed to awaken the dead. Every weapon is manned and ready. Every engineering space is fully manned with all available power ready for instant use. Every officer and enlisted man has an assigned duty station. The person assigned is trained as an expert in that special piece of equipment. My station was in Plot. On Bailey, Plot is mid-ships, directly below the main mast and Main Battery Director, one full deck below the water line. It is one compartment forward of forward fire room and one compartment below the forward damage control party station and the galley and food storage locker. Plot is the location of all electrical panels for guns, main battery director, ship's gyrocompassand main battery computer. During General Quarters, Plot is a watertight compartment, sealed off from any escape. The main battery computer was huge and totally archaic by today's standards. It was 30-inches by 36-inches,and 40-inches high. That was my duty station in charge of 7menand the operation."
"The Weather: The Aleutians are known for wind, very rough seas, fog, often rain and frequently hail. Ice often formed on all exposed surfaces. Rough seas washed away lifelines on main deck, crushed depth charge racks, and jammed depth charges so you couldn't use them. Lost one man overboard due to mountainous seas."
"On March 14, 1943, we left Dutch Harbor on a westerly track. I had no idea where we were going. But the Admiral and Captains did. Naval Intelligence had broken Jap codes and what we learned was that they (the Japanese) were ready to attempt to reinforce men and supplies on Attu and or Kiska. We were sent to prevent that from happening."
"Let me set the scene. Time 0630. At Dawn Alert (an hour before sunrise), on March 26, 1943, we went to General Quarters as was customary. We are in a scouting line, steering 020 degrees. (just slightly to the east of due north) We are west of Attu. Each ship is 12,000 yards(6miles) from the next. Speed 15 knots. We were 1200 miles west of DutchHarbor,500 miles west of Attu, near the Komandorski Islands, close to Siberia."
"Daylight occurred during this alert. The visibility is 13 to 19miles--VERY UNUSUAL. The air temperature is 30 degrees Fahrenheit. CONTACT This is no drill. ADRENALIN FLOWS. Radar contacts are made at 0730byCoghlan and Richmond at the head of the scouting line. Five targets in original radar contact, between 7 and 12 miles due north. By0800,range had increased to 27,000 yards (13.5 miles). Ships thought to be large merchant ship plus 3 smaller merchant ships and 1 DD. This will be a picnic OH YEAH!"
"At 0824, 4 more ships detected at 40,000 yards, identified at 2 Cas (heavy cruisers), 2 CLs (light cruisers), and shortly thereafter,4destroyers. My GOSH--we are outgunned better than 2 to 1 Not going to be a picnic as first thought. To make matters worse--enemy to our East, between us and Dutch Harbor, where our puny air force was based and SAFE HARBOR for us."
"At 0840, Richmond taken under fire; endured for 2 minutes. Japanese ships out of range for us. Richmond commenced firing at 0842. Maximum range of 8-inch gun is 30,000 yards (effective range is19,500yards); 6-inch maximum range is 22,000 yards (effective range is 14,000), and maximum range of our 5-inch guns is 18,000 yards(effective range is 12,000)."
(Author's Note: As related by Historian Samuel Eliot Morison, Rear Admiral McMorris, despite the two to one odds in warship strength, decided immediately to fight it out and brought Salt Lake City to the fore just as the Japanese warships turned south to engage. Salt Lake City became the centerpiece of the U.S. sea fighting force and McMorris broadcast that the other U.S. ships would conform to Salt Lake City's movements, as the Task Group's only heavy gunned cruiser. Now back to Lieutenant (jg)Hogshead.)
"In plot, we knew the shooting had started by Salt Lake City. We couldn't shoot, as the enemy ships were outside of our maximum range of 18,000 yards. We could hear the salvos from enemy cruisers landing close aboard and we knew we were well within the range of both the enemy light cruisers and the heavy cruisers."
"Courses now brought the two forces down to a range of 18,000 yards so the Bailey could join the fun Battle continued off and on as the range opened and closed. Hits were observed on one of the Jap heavy cruisers by shells fired by the Salt Lake City and by our Bailey. Salt Lake City used orange dye on her shells. At 0900, Japanese-launched torpedoes observed passing close to Salt Lake City."
" At 0910, Salt Lake City, Richmond, and Bailey all reported incoming near hits. A ship shudders as a salvo lands close aboard and shells explode. During all of this, we in plot did our jobs, no panic, no visiting, no complaining. Just worried, but you worried to yourself Wondering if in the next minute you would be blown to bits. No one in plot lost his cool, just did his job. Result of Training-Drills. Drills and more drills."
"By 1000, we had been under continuous fire for an hour and a half. No American ship had taken a single hit, a miracle in itself. Lullinaction. (Nachi had been hit, which led to a casualty that temporarily put her main battery out of action.) Had been too busy to pray, but now I took time. Gathered the men, held hands as I asked God for Protection. All I prayed was "Lord, Protect Us Didn't even say Please!"
"Observers noted: The Japanese cruisers had taken a number of hits. At 1010 Japs scored a direct hit on Salt Lake City; she suffered steering problems. Bailey and Coghlan ordered to make smoke screen to screen the Salt Lake City from (Japanese) view. At 1044 Bailey taken under direct fire. At 1103 Salt Lake City suffered a direct hit, much damage, including severed fuel lines. Salt water put out her boiler fires. Salt Lake City signaled MY SPEED ZERO. At 1115 Bailey, Coghlan and Monaghan ordered to make torpedo attack on enemy cruisers. TORPEDO ATTACK Word Flashed throughout ship. Ordnance & Gunnery classes at the Naval Academy always taught that you get as close as possible to increase the probability of a hit. I began to closely observe and study two dials on my computer, range and speed."
"Range began to decrease rapidly from 18,000 yards, speed increasedfrom25-knots, to 28, to 30, to 31 and finally 32 knots-OURMAXIMUM SPEED. Very near miss at starboard side, forward fireroom. Tremendous explosion DEAFENING WE HAVE LOST POWER. We were instantly in the dark except for the bluish light from two Battle Lanterns. Water began coming in, stuffed blankets and life jackets in a seam that had parted. COLD. Temperature 33-degrees. Speed slowed to 12-knots, thento5-knots. Then ZERO SPEED Sitting ducks! We FIRED A SPREAD OF TORPEDOES AT 9500 YARDS."
"For their 8-inch guns, like looking down the rifle barrel, they can't miss. HERE WAS OUR SITUATION. We had lost electrical power, and were in the dark except for Battle Lanterns. We were dead in the water. Range to the enemy 9500-yards. In our plotting room, I could observe profiles only. I could read our luminescent dials for range, speed, etc. We in plot were in a watertight compartment from which there was no escape. But, there was 33-degree temperature water now up to my ankles, rising fast. Wondering how long I had to live. AGAIN, PRAYED FOR GOD's protection. God you got me in this mess-NOW GET ME OUT Again, didn't say please At almost that exact instant, ship vibrated. We had miraculously somehow regained steerage-way, Speed up to 6, then 8,then10 and finally 12-knots. Don't tell me God doesn't hear and answer prayers"
"But Always In His Own Way and His Own Time. Thought to myself , When I first see Him, GIVE GOD The Medal of Honor. What we in plot didn't know, forward fire room and forward engine room both flooded to the waterline, accounting for loss of speed. Only one engine operating. The Bailey by now was down to 6-inches of freeboard."
"Upon launching of our torpedoes, Japanese ships turned away and broke off action. Threat of torpedoes was what did it. Range opened rapidly. We looked at each other, incredulously. Tears of emotional joy. Battle Over at 1230. We had been in six hours of hot surface warfare. Longest daylight action by our Navy ever. One hour later, secured from General Quarters. Limped back to Adak on one boiler and one engine, then to Dutch Harbor."
"Casualties-4 Dead, 5 Wounded, two seriously, one later died. I am living proof that God answers prayers. Exchange of Messages."
"Bailey received recognition-- 9 Battle Stars (for this and later actions), the Navy Unit Commendation. Individual awards included 1Navy Cross, 2 Silver Stars, 5 Bronze Stars, and 36 Purple Hearts."
Illustration 9 - Navy Ship Thanks Navy Ship
Stanley Hogshead understated the role of his destroyer, the Bailey. Morison's Volume VII quotes an unnamed Japanese participant. "Our flagship, the Nachi, was hit by effective shots from an outstandingly valiant United States destroyer, which appeared on the scene toward the end of the engagement." Morison then identifies Bailey as "the outstandingly valiant destroyer." With Coghlan and Monaghan, at McMorris' instructions when Salt Lake City lay dead in the water, Bailey was attempting to overtake Nachi and Maya to make a torpedo attack toward the Japanese off while Salt Lake City lay disabled. The Japanese pounded the U.S. destroyers and Bailey herself was hit twice, finally rendering her immobile, but not before she got off a spread of torpedoes. This was the turning point. The Japanese did not know, because of the destroyer smokescreen protecting Salt Lake City, that the latter was badly wounded. Witnessing a fresh attack from torpedoes that they most feared, and worried about the arrival of U.S. bombers from the Aleutians, Vice Admiral Hosagaya decided it was time to break off the action. He and his damaged ships limped away to the west. Their transports had already turned back. The McMorris force, with Salt Lake City and Bailey's crews that had acted like men possessed, got underway at 15 knots, moving toward Adak.
The bitter war in the bitter Aleutian weather had been doggedly contested for that entire one-year period of the Japanese occupation of Attu and Kiska. The tri-service command structure did begin to function better after the arrival of Rear Admiral Kinkaid. He and General Buckner had similar views of the strategic implications of Alaska.
The lack of communications infrastructure in the region worked against any command and control coordination among the service elements. Even when the parties were persuaded of their common interest, the results were far from satisfactory. Each service had its own communications doctrine, and the equipment to support it, but It stopped there. The Navy fought a major surface battle. McMorris sent word immediately to U.S. shore installations when battle was about to commence, and included the coordinates of where it would take place. Aircraft were actually launched from Adak and Amchitka but never arrived in the battle area despite the exceptionally rare good visibility at sea. The inability to get all the sea and air units working together became the trademark of the U.S. Aleutian effort in 1942 and 1943.
General Buckner's base legacy, originating in 1940 for the future support of U.S. military operations, particularly air operations, was huge, and it had its payoffs, but the communications gaps and incompatibilities limited the results. As to Buckner's airfield program, in the year 2001, in the friendly confines of the United States' "lower 48", it takes ten years to build a major commercial aviation facility and few are being built. If any would doubt the Buckner legacy, certainly the passengers and crew of a Delta MD-11 in March 2001 would not. Enroute to Japan, this aircraft made a cautionary landing at Cold Bay, Alaska, due to smoke in the cockpit.
The Corps of Engineers had performed miracles in laying miles of Marsden matting for Aleutian-deployed aircraft to land on, and in provisioning wherever possible, sea access for supply purposes to these new bases. In addition, most of the land plane bases were situated so that they could also support the PBY, the Navy's patrol seaplane for water landings, and the PBY-5A for airfield or water landings. Buckner's vision still left much to be done. Air Corps pilots, according to author Garfield, in1941and 1942 used Rand McNally road maps. The sea charts that existed were based on Russian surveys done in 1864. The progress outweighed the omissions.
To maintain a consistent aeronautical presence, air operations need to be coordinated over reliable radio communication channels. Light beacons will not do. (There were two light beacons for night navigation in mainland Alaska in 1942.) Blinker signals will not do. Smoke signals will not do. After the debacle in air to ground communications exhibited for the defense against the second Japanese air attack on Dutch Harbor, the U.S. Signal Corps was ordered in. They were told to start from scratch and provide Alaska a desperately needed communications capability. It was also time, past time, to consider the introduction of low frequency radio range transmitters for radio beam generation, both for point to point aircraft transit and for aircraft let down to safe landings instrument conditions. No place in the world was subject to instrument conditions as much of the time as the Aleutians.
The lesson of that period for the U.S. that needed to be emphasized was recognition of the need for the reliable air navigation and communication. With those in place, one could address "command and control."
As noted, the Signal Corps was ordered to remedy the situation. But, that realization came late, and when I arrived in the Aleutians almost three years later, the remedial process was still in progress. Radio rangestations, furnishing "beams" to fly, and voice communication systems for air and ground control, required planning first, and then time to install. The Aleutian experience in air traffic control implementation involved one added factor when contrasted with the earlier progress in the North Atlantic rim. Aleutian-based folks could say, "There was a war going on here"
A major change in strategic posture came with the construction of a major U.S. Naval Base at Adak. Accommodations for land and water based aircraft plus ship and submarine berthing were effected in record time. From the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1943, Adak went from practically unoccupied to a city of over 50,000. It became paired with Kodiak in major importance for naval operations. The military pressure vector that had originated west to east at Pearl Harbor, turned around and became east to west after Midway, despite Japan's face saving occupation of Attu and Kiska. Conditions for the full turnaround would not exist until the Japanese were eliminated from their Aleutian foothold. We have seen how the U.S. Navy had first interdicted and then shut off the Japanese re-supply efforts for Attu and Kiska. It would shortly become necessary to dislodge them completely.
History has a way of making some decisions into afterthoughts, or at least second thoughts. Military objectives in WW II moved westward. Sitka was left much too far to the east to be a base of significant influence in the effort against the Japanese in World War II, or even for projecting our electronic surveillance against the USSR in the Cold War which followed. Sitka had earlier fulfilled its important role. It was the early staging base for Kodiak and Dutch Harbor. From the State of Washington, Sitka was readily reachable both by sea and by air.
The U.S. took maximum advantage of the Japanese decision not to occupy Adak and established its own important base there. With the addition of wheel-sets for the PBY Catalina, to upgrade it to amphibian status, resulting in the PBY-5A model, Adak could handle both Catalina configurations. This diminished the importance of Dutch Harbor, which base then receded into history. For the Navy, then, Kodiak and Adak became the principal bases in this theatre.
We have identified the importance during the Japanese attacks on Dutch Harbor of an Army airfield on Umnak. First recognition of its strategic importance came in early 1942 came when the Japanese began to suspect that U.S. aircraft were operating from an airfield on Otter Point on Umnak Island. By 1946, when patrol aircraft from my own squadron were temporarily based there, we knew it as Ft. Glenn. For key bases then, NAS Kodiak, NAS Adak, and the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps Base, Ft. Glenn, proved critical to postwar military flyers beginning in1946. The fourth important air base was the Army base at Cold Bay on Unimak Island. This is the airfield that we knew in 1946 as Ft. Randall. It had been one of Buckner's "secret" bases and figured in the defense against the Japanese in 1942. By 1946, the airfield at Cold Bay had become the home of the U.S. Army Air Force's 10th Rescue Squadron, flying OA-10aircraft. The OA-10 was a PBY-5A Catalina pressed into Army use. Navy patrol plane pilots in 1946 used the designations "Cold Bay" and "Ft. Randall" interchangeably when referring to the place as a destination.
Operationally then, by 1946, Kodiak, Ft. Randall, Adak and Ft. Glenn were four important bases in the new mission responsibilities of Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer and PBY-5A Catalina squadrons. For military flyers venturing "out the chain," appreciation needs to be noted for a fifth airfield, Shemya, which had one long, flat runway with good lighting. By1946,Shemya was no longer a military operations base. Unencumbered by mountains, this atoll just east of Attu, had an excellent approach right down on the water, and was used as an emergency alternate airport when NAS Adak, Ft. Glenn or NAS Attu were socked in.
We need to acknowledge that we may have occasionally stretched locations of places beyond their precise geography. For all of the geography education a U.S. schoolchild acquired, including the oft told tale of the purchase of Alaska from Russia, most U.S. "lower forty eight" citizens know little about Alaska itself. There is a geographic naming challenge at the heart of this story. The Alaska Peninsula, reaching southwest from Alaska, is dominated by the Aleutian Range of mountains. This range extends right into the heart of Alaska itself. The Aleutian Chain of islands, however, do not actually begin until Unimak Island, the first major island off the western tip of the Alaska Peninsula. So, while much of our flying technically traversed Alaskan air space, and indeed for alternate airport options to a weathered in Kodiak we went right back to the Alaskan mainland, Aleutian missions were central to our objectives. I may occasionally use the term Aleutian when more precisely I should have used the term, Alaskan.
Every aircraft introduced into the Alaskan theatre had to undergo climatic modifications. Some made it by little more than introducing new procedures. The Navy's PBY fared better than most. Although it could carry armament, it was designed primarily as a patrol plane. When it became an amphibian, its landing options were increased, and landing options could make a plane especially endearing in Alaska. Even without the wheels, since landing fields were so scarce in the region, a PBY pilot was probably envied because he could land in more places, and that meant more places that might provide a ceiling and visibility welcome.
Even the B-17 Flying Fortresses of World War II fame had to undergo configuration changes to make them suitable for flight in the region. For the fighter aircraft, the P-40s and later the P-38s, aircraft life could be demanding and the attrition was high. By May 1943, with a landing strip on Amchitka in use in support of the U.S. effort to retake Attu, some of the Army Air Corps fighter inventory was moved out to Amchitka. By then, Navy PV-1, Vega Venturas, had also reported to the Aleutians. The positive news that this aircraft brought to the area was its airborne radar. In addition to the military surveillance use in finding enemy ships, airborne radar on more than one occasion has been the means for a crew to get a plane back safely on the ground when all other alternatives had been foreclosed. From personal experience, I can attest to the value of radar in an aircraft, especially in a region devoid of land based radio aids to air navigation.
The Ventura stemmed from the Lockheed family of aircraft which had included the Electras and the Lodestars, and later the PV-2Harpoonand much later the P-2V Neptune. Unfortunately, the Ventura member of the family had some drawbacks. Captain Harry Carter USN (Ret.) had unusually good credentials for his comments that follow.
"My initial introduction to the PV-1 Lockheed Vega Ventura aircraft was at the aircraft's Lockheed Vega assembly plant in Burbank California. The PV-1 has been called the Lockheed Ventura and the Vega Ventura but it was both.. She was a descendant of the Lockheed Vega Electra of Amelia Earhart fame. The Lockheed Electra line included the Lodestar, and the Army B-34. The immediate forerunner of the PV-1 was the light bomber, the Hudson, flown extensively by the British Coastal Command against the U-boats. My first job was working on the engine nacelle units of the PV-1. I progressed through several assembly jobs with my last one being instructor for newly arrived Rosie and her riveter cohorts, teaching them how to drive and buck rivets. The men were rapidly leaving for war and the female population of the San Fernando Valley was taking their place on the PV-1 assembly line. I did not have the remotest idea in my mind at the time that I would be flying the same airplane less than two years later."
"Many of these aircraft were built for the Royal Air Force (RAF), and the U.S. Army Air Corps. The bulk of the British order was cancelled, as was most of the Army order. I'll leave it to the reader to guess why after reading the following paragraphs. The Navy, looking for a plane to use in its recently acquired role of land based anti-submarine operations and also in quest of a land based medium bomber, picked up the cancelled orders and all production of the PV-1 went to the Navy."
"Following graduation at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas and receiving my wings, I arrived at Lake City, Florida in December of 1943 for flight training in the PV-1.
Burial: Date: 15 SEP 2000
Place: - Orion Center Cemetery, Cumminsville, (Chatfield) , Minnesota
Note:
Cemetery Location
Feature Name: Orion Center Cemetery
Feature Type: cemetery
State: Minnesota
County: Olmsted
USGS 7.5' x 7.5' Map: Marion
Latitude: 435300N
Longitude: 0921526W
Township Orion
County: Olmsted
Name: ALBERT K. Thompson
Birth Date: 03/DEC/1915
Death Date: 11/SEP/2000
Cemetery: Orion Center
Comments: SP. FRANCES A. Fox. MAR. 10/MAR/1937. ROC. 13/SEP/2000
Section: 2 10 8
(Birthdate) Friday, December 03, 1915
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Art: Art- Chagall Painted "The Birthday."
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WASHINGTON STATE DEFEATS BROWN IN FIRST ROSE BOWL SINCE 1902. RESTA DRIVES A PEUGEOT AT A RECORD 108 MPH AT SHEEPSHEAD BAY SPEEDWAY. BOSTON DEFEATS PHillY 5-4 IN WORLD SERIES. ARMY DEFEATS NAVY 14-0 IN ANNUAL FOOTBALL GAME.
Birth Note: EWING
The town was named Ewing in honor of the first postmaster in Holt County, and was incorporated May 8, 1884.
In 1881, the post office known as "Ford" was moved to the railroad site, one and a half miles southwest, and, a Mr. Johnson took over as postmaster, at this time.
In 1891, the first commercial club comprised of 17 businessmen was organized.
In 1904, Martin Savidge built telephone lines from the switchboard near Deloit to Ewing.
From 1907 to 1911, the Savidge Brothers experimented with gliders and built and flew Nebraska's first plane.
EWING -- HOLT COUNTY
This part of Nebraska went unnoticed for many years. Not until May 1870 did a covered wagon turn off the trail and stop just below the north and south forks of the Elkhorn River. James Ewing and his family decided this was a good place to settle, so started carving out a home, found a good water supply, and planted a garden and "sod corn." Mr. Ford settled nearby and soon others came; Gunter, Davidson, Clemen, Billings, Butler, and Donaldson. By 1872 the families of Ryan, Howe, Kieley, and Wentworth also took homestead claims.
In January 1874 a post office, the first in Holt County, was granted. Ewing, the postmaster, gave it the name "Ford." He kept the mail in an old violin box until it was picked up.
The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad was advancing up the valley. Randolph Smith was paid $25 a month to hold a particular quarter section of land for the railroad. In 1881 the rails crossed Cashe Creek and the South Fork, and as agreed, Smith deeded the land to the Pioneer Town Site Company, a subsidiary of FEMVR, and a town was platted.
Leroy Butler quickly improvised a small hotel to accommodate railroad men. A house, originally built on Burt Simpson's homestead on the South Fork by the mill dam, was moved near the depot to house workers. The Ewings also moved nearer to the railroad. The town between the two forks of the river grew rapidly.
A new post office was established and "tended" by a Mr. Johnson. George Butler, first appointed postmaster at the new location, chose the name "Ewing." Butler was followed by John Wood, Joseph Kay, Fred Waugh, Gary Benson, Lyle Dierks, Frances Rotherham, Cleta Lofquest, and the present postmaster, Roger Dillon.
When the original railroad station burned, a new building was brought in on two flat cars from Emmet. That building was sold and moved to Vincent Thiele's farm after the Chicago & North Western Railroad closed the station.
The first newspaper in town was the "Ewing Item" published by Clarence Selah. In 1891 George Butler founded the "People's Advocate." Other owners include Cole, Primus, Raker, Wood, and Benson. R.B.Crellin became editor in 1921 and changed the name to "The Ewing Advocate." Thelma Drayton bought and operated the shop until 1951, when it was combined with the Clearwater newspaper.
Telephones were installed in 1904. In 1906 a gas engine pumped water for the town. In 1908 Lee Spittler (for a commission of $37.50) built a $2,325 water tower that still provides the water for Ewing. Gas was piped in for street and home lights in 1909. An electric plant was built in 1915 and maintained by Frank Noffke until the "high line" arrived in 1930.
Ewing's first school, built in 1886, burned and was replaced by a brick structure in 1917. That building burned in December 1932, with classes held "where ever" for the remainder of that year, until a new building was finished. Several buildings were added to meet state regulations and accommodate increased enrollment since then.
By 1886 Ewing had three churches; Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic. The Episcopal (now Church of Christ) and the Full Gospel Churches were built later. These churches continue to serve the community.
Noteworthy items for Ewing include:
-- A stable of rare horses, among them the famous Hambletonian trotter, "Dan Patch," was owned and operated by Kay Brothers.
-- The bank was robbed in 1903, and Kay's Store in 1904.
-- A July 4th celebration of 1903 brought 1,500 people to town. Green's Drug Store float won first prize, $2.
-- Savidge Brothers were barnstorming the area with their biplane, adding to the celebrations by 1911.
-- James Furley, chief butter-maker for Ewing's creamery, acclaimed as "best in the state."
Ewing's highest population of 705 occurred in 1950. The 1980 census recorded 520. The town has had its share of fires, blizzards, wind, and hail storms, but good neighbors always come to aid the victims that are hardest hit and help them get through.
Linked to the outside by Highway 275, the people of Ewing take pride in being part of a caring community.
Written by Rachel Von Conet. After Rachel Von Conet unexpected death on June 3, 1989, Mildred Bergstrom, Box 65, Ewing, NE, 68735, completed the project.
Death Note: Rochester Post Bulletin, Obituaries
Albert K. Thompson -- Rochester
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
ROCHESTER -- The funeral for Albert K. Thompson will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Homestead United Methodist Church in Rochester with the Rev. Duane Gebhart officiating. Burial will be in Orion Center Cemetery in Cummingsville.
Mr. Thompson, 84, of 838 10th St. N.W., Rochester, a retired auto salesman, died Monday (Sept. 11, 2000) at Bear Creek Care and Rehabilitation Center where he had resided two months.
Born Dec. 3, 1915, in Ewing, Neb., he grew up in Harvey, N.D., and moved to Rochester following high school. On March 20, 1937, he married Frances A. Fox in Cresco, Iowa. His wife was a homemaker. She died May 30, 1994. Mr. Thompson was a Rochester police officer, worked in IBM security and retired as an auto salesman for Universal Ford. He was a World War II Navy veteran and a member of the American Legion, VFW and Rochester Men's Bowling Association.
Survivors include three sons, Keith A. (Mardella) of Worthington, Ohio, Bruce D. (Marilyn) of Plymouth, Minn., and Jeff A. of Rochester; a daughter, Deanna S. (Dean) Sanden of Winona; nine grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; a great-great-grandchild; and two sisters, Fern Swedenberg of Glenwood, Minn., and Madelene Allen of St. Paul. A brother and a grandson preceded him in death.
Friends may call from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Macken Funeral Home and an hour before the service Friday at the church.
Social Security Number Note: ALBERT Thompson
SSN 471-03-5114
Residence: 55901 Rochester, Olmsted, MN
Born 3 Dec 1915
Last Benefit:
Died 11 Sep 2000
Issued: MN (Before 1951)
==========================================================
Social Security Administration
Office of Earnings Operations
FOIA Workgroup
300 N. Greene Street
P.O. Box 33022
Baltimore, Maryland 21290
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request
Dear Freedom of Information Officer,
I am writing this request under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C.
Section 552. I hereby request a copy of the SS-5, Application for Social
Security Card, for the following individual:
Thompson, ALBERT
471-03-5114
Birth: 3 Dec 1915
Death: 11 Sep 2000
This individual is deceased, having been listed in the Social Security
Administration's Death Master File. I understand the fee for this service
is $7.00 when the Social Security Number is provided. Included is a check
for $______ made out to the Social Security Administration to cover any
administrative costs required by this request.
Please respond to my request upon receipt of this initial correspondence.
Thank you for your attention and assistance.
Sincerely,
Address:
Daytime Phone Number:
Individual Note: Taken about 1963
Individual Note: Al Thompson in favorite chair. August 1998
Individual Note: Extracted from a picture taken at Eriks graduation, June 1992
Individual Note: Francis, Al and Erik Thompson at Eriks graduation from Ohio University
Individual Note: Taken ca. 1945
Individual Note: Lake property sold in 1997. Located at Lake Zumbro, Oronoco, Minnesota.
Individual Note: Thompson picnic 1997
Bruce, Al, Deanna, Keith with Jeff behind
Individual Note: Keith, Deanna, Francis, Al, holding Jeff Thompson
Individual Note: Taken at Lake Zumbro, Oronoco, Minnesota
Back row, Keith, Bruce, Deanna, Jeff
Front row, Francis, Al
Individual Note: Back row:
Keith, Mardella, Marilynn, Bruce, Deanna, Jeff, Dean
Front row:
Francis, Al
Individual Note: Taken 1960 at Carmey Blackwoods
Individual Note: Ewing Nebraska, 1919
Individual Note: Third person in photo, unidentified
Individual Note: Possibly School picture
Individual Note: Church picture, 1978
Individual Note: As a boy, approximately 12 years old.
Individual Note: Approximately 1937 outside Myra Fox home
Individual Note: Taken approximately 1937
Individual Note: Taken approximately 1941 by their insurance company.
Individual Note: ca. 1943-44
Individual Note: Taken on the island of Attu in the Aluten Isands, ca. 1943
Individual Note: ca. 1938
Individual Note: Taken at Al Thompsons 50th Wedding Anniversary, 1987
Individual Note: 50th Wedding Anniversary
Individual Note: Bruce, Deanna, Jeff, Keith Thompson
Individual Note: Al and Fran Thompson's 50th Wedding Anniversary
Individual Note: Island where Al was stationed during the Second World War.
Individual Note: September 8, 2000
Individual Note: September 8, 2000
Individual Note: September 8, 2000
Individual Note: September 8, 2000
Individual Note: "C" company, Platoon 5, 138th Naval Construction Batallion (SeaBees)
Al Thompson, third row, 4th from left.
Individual Note: Thompson picnic, 1986
Individual Note: Tompkins Picnic, August 2000
Individual Note: Approximately 1984, Church photo
Individual Note: Article from IBM newsletter awarding Albert Thompson and Dave Whiting an award for life-saving.
Individual Note: Approximately 1944
Individual Note: January 1971
Individual Note: Probably on Lake Michigan
Individual Note: July 17-22, 1984, probably Lake Michigan
Individual Note: Retirement from the Ford Garage 3-81
Individual Note: November 1982
Individual Note: December 1982
Individual Note: Reunion, August 1981
Individual Note: Christmas 1972
Individual Note: Orion Cemetery, Chatfield, Minnesota