Kenneth James Kyser

September 26, 1923 – March 3, 1991

World War II Service History

Kenneth J. Kyser served in the United States Army and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II.

The photo above was likely taken while my father was home on leave during the winter of 1944-1945 based on the two bars on his upper left arm denoting his rank of Corporal, the US Army Air Forces insignia also on his left shoulder, and the Communication Specialist Badge on his right cuff. I believe he is outside my grandfather’s house in Dayton, Ohio, with his much younger half brother Howard and the family dog.

Where does all this information come from?

The initial source for the information on this page are a handful of documents and photos from my father’s time in the military. These documents include his Separation Qualification Record (WD AGO Form 100) and his Honorable Discharge (WD AGO Form 53-55). In this accounting I will refer to official documents like these two as his discharge papers. I have augmented the information contained in the documents I have with small details my father related to me during his lifetime and related information gleaned from innumerable web searches. I have tried to link directly to and give attribution for external information as much as possible.

Documenting my father’s service would be easier if I could get more information from the US Government, but the storage facility for the majority of the US Army’s personnel data experienced a catastrophic fire in 1973 and over 15 million military personnel records held there were destroyed. When I requested my father’s records from the US Army I was informed my father’s records were unfortunately among those that were damaged. They continually work to bring back some of these records, mostly paper damaged by fire and water. So maybe someday more of my father’s records will be available, but for now I have only the few documents my father kept.

There are supplementary records available that could help to reconstruct some of my father’s service history, things like muster rolls, unit rolls, morning reports, hospital records, war diaries, etc. I have used many of those that are available online to add a large portion of the detail in the following pages. While a significant number of supplementary records from World War 2 for the US Navy and the US Marine Corps are available online through the US National Archives, many of those for the US Army and Army Air Corps/Force are not yet online and in order to access them I would need to go visit the physical records center. Some of the records of interest would be at the records center in St. Louis, Missouri, while others would be at the main US National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland, and there are even others that are specific to the US Army Air Force that are held at the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. There would also be deck logs for merchant ships he might have traveled on that are held at the records center nearest the port where the ship would have arrived from its journey.

First Six Months Stateside

My father’s discharge papers state he was inducted on January 22, 1943, and he entered into active service on January 29, 1943 at Fort Custer near Battle Creek, Michigan.

From the National Archives, in the series Morning Reports, ca. 1912-1946, I have found some information about the first few months he was in the service. In the archive Morning Reports for January 1940 – July 1943: Roll 2211 (3 of 4), I can see that he was assigned to the 386th Military Police Escort Guard (MPEG) Company and went through basic training at Camp McCain near Grenada, Mississippi. I also see an entry of my father being sent to the hospital on February 17, 1943, though there is no record of a visit in the archive Hospital Admission Card Files, 1943. He returned from the hospital to regular duty on February 22. Both of these entries show his rank as that of Private.

On April 15, 1943, possibly upon the completion of basic training, the morning reports for the 386th MPEG Co show the entire company left Camp McCain and moved to Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I see an entry of my father being sent to the hospital again on April 21, 1943, returning on May 3 and again on May 11, 1943, returning on May 18. There is no record of these hospital visits in the archive Hospital Admission Card Files, 1943, just like there wasn’t for the trip when he was stationed at Camp McCain, so I have no idea why he was sent to the hospital. All of these records show his rank as that of Private.

The morning reports contain no entries specific to my father other than his three trips to the hospital, though they do mention training on the firing range with various weapons.

Some interesting details about Camp Shelby are that it included a prisoner of war camp which housed soldiers of the infamous German Afrika Korps, and that it is where the Japanese-Americans that formed the 422nd Regimental Combat Team did their basic training. They went on to become the most decorated unit in US Military History. They individually earned 4000 Purple Hearts, 4000 Bronze Star Medals, and 21 Medals of Honor. The unit was awarded 17 Presidential Unit Citations and the Congressional Gold Medal. Daniel Inouye, former United States Senator from Hawaii, was one of its better known members.

Deployment to North Africa

From my father’s discharge papers, in the summer of 1943 he was sent to the North African Theatre of Operations (NATO). They indicate he left the US on June 6, 1943 and arrived in NATO on June 13. There is no indication of what port he shipped out from or exactly where in NATO he arrived.

From the morning reports for May, 1943 for the 386th MPEG Co I could determine that on May 30, 3 officers and 120 enlisted men of the 386th left Camp Shelby via rail and headed for Camp Patrick Henry near Newport News, Virginia.

From the morning reports for June, 1943 for the 386th MPEG Co I have determined that on June 1, the Company arrived at Camp Patrick Henry and on June 4 they moved to the Port of Embarkation and boarded the ship USS West Point (AP-23). On June 6 the USS West Point set sail for North Africa.

From the National Archives, in the series, World War II War Diaries, Other Operational Records and Histories, I found USS WEST POINT – War Diary, 6/1-30/43, which is the daily record of action for the USS West Point for the month of June 1943, and gives the same dates for the voyage. It lists the passenger breakdown as 1,220 US Army officers, 6,837 US Army enlisted men, 32 US Naval officers, 156 US Naval enlisted men, 1 French Naval officer, and 15 US civilians. It also shows that the ship sailed alone versus as part of a convoy, and that the destination was Casablanca, French Morocco. Also in the same series, I found COM MOROCCAN SEA FRONTIER – War Diary, 6/1-30/43, which is the log of the port and sea frontier for Casablanca for the month of June 1943. It shows the USS West Point arriving on June 13.

Details of North African Deployment

The morning reports for June for the 386th MPEG Co indicate they stayed aboard the ship until June 15, 1943, when they disembarked and moved to P.W.E. 100. Searching the internet I found the web site WW2 US Medical Research Centre and the page Veteran’s Testimony-Arthur R. Mann. This article states that P.W.E. 100 was a Prisoner of War Enclosure located south of Casablanca and that it held 20-30,000 German and Italian prisoners of war captured during the North African Campaign.

The one piece of physical documentation I have concerning my father’s time in NATO is a liberty pass he was given from P.W.E 100 for the day of June 18, 1943. That pass indicates my father held the rank of Private and was a member of the 386th MPEG Co.

The morning reports contain no entries specific to my father during his time in North Africa, though they do mention chasing POWs and performing guard duty.

Returning Stateside

My father did not spend a long time in North Africa. He was sent back stateside after only three weeks. His discharge papers show him departing NATO on July 7, 1943 and arriving in the US on July 21. I have no other information in his papers to tell me anything more about this voyage, like the name of the ship or where it landed.

From the morning reports for July, 1943 for the 386th MPEG Co I have determined that on July 5, 1943 the Company left P.W.E. 100 and moved to the Port of Embarkation, where they boarded the ship USAT Cristobal, and on July 7 they set sail for the United States.

In the archive, COM MOROCCAN SEA FRONTIER – War Diary, 7/1-31/43, it states that portions of two convoys, GUS-9 and TO-6, left the port on July 7th. The TO-x and OT-x convoys were primarily tanker ships delivering petroleum products from the Caribbean to NATO and then alternatively to the east coast of the US. The GUS-x and UGS-x convoys were slower convoys (minimum speed 9.5 knots) going back and forth between the Mediterranean (anchored on Gibraltar) and the east coast of the United States (anchored initially on New York City and later on Hampton Roads, Virginia). They complimented the faster GUF-x and UGF-x convoys (minimum speed 14.5 knots) assigned to the same routes.

The ships that left Casablanca and joined up with convoy GUS-9 were:

They joined convoy GUS-9 with ships from other allied ports such as Gibraltar; Oran, Algiers, and Phlippeville in Algeria; and Bizerte, Tunisia, growing to over 40 ships.

The convoy then proceeded across the Atlantic Ocean escorted by the warships of Task Force TF-61:

The escort task force was augmented July 6 through July 12 by the warships of the hunter-killer Task Group TG-21.11:

• USS Santee (CVE-29) a Sangamon-class escort carrier as the Commander TG-21.11
• USS MacLeish (DD-220) a Clemson-class destroyer
• USS Overton (DD-239) a Clemson-class destroyer
• USS Bainbridge (DD-246) a Clemson-class destroyer

The escort task force was augmented July 12 through July 17 by the warships of the hunter-killer Task Group TG-21.12:

• USS Core (CVE-13) a Bogue-class escort carrier as the Commander TG-21.12
• USS Badger (DD-126) a Wickes-class destroyer
• USS Barker (DD-213) a Clemson-class destroyer
• USS Bulmer (DD-222) a Clemson-class destroyer

Based on USS LIVERMORE – War Diary, 7/1/43 to 8/31/43, on the evening of July 19, 1943, the Explorer, the Cristobal, the Santa Rosa, the Santa Paula, and the JW McAndrew broke off from the main convoy at 15 minute intervals and proceeded independently towards New York, New York. The main body of the convoy proceeded to Hampton Roads, Virginia. I can’t seem to find any sort of log for the Port of New York for August of 1943 nor are there any logs for US Army Transport ships like these in the National Archives. I did find COMEASTSEAFRON – War Diary, 7/1-31/43, the log of the Eastern Sea Frontier of the US for July of 1943, and on page 277 it shows aircraft from New York Naval Air Station picking up these 5 ships and providing air coverage on July 21.

As an indication of importance of convoying with escort screens to the successful transit of the Atlantic by allied ships, aircraft from the USS Core’s TG-21.12 are credited with sinking German submarines U-487 on July 13, 1943 and U-67 on July 16, 1943 while operating as part of this convoy’s screen. And aircraft from the USS Santee’s TG-21.11 are credited with sinking submarines U-160 on July 14, 1943 and U-509 on July 15, 1943, just days after breaking away from the convoy.

The morning reports for the 386th MPEG Co show the Cristobal arriving in New York on July 21. There, the 386th disembarked and moved to Fort Slocum to await transportation back to Camp Shelby. I haven’t yet found the morning reports for the 386th MPEG Co for August of 1943, so I am not sure of the exact date they arrived back at Camp Shelby.

I also found an interesting tidbit of information here that seems to offer some more clarity to what happened to my father in the early portion of his service. This is an entry in a book about the 11th Armored Division. This would seem to be from a section of the book where there there is a listing of veterans from the 11th, it has a little information for each soldier such as where they were from, their service history and, for those who survived, what they did in life after the war. The entry for Donald R. Montgomery is what interests me. He was inducted on January 22, 1943 at Fort Custer, just like my father. He did his basic training at Camp McCain and was assigned 386th MPEG Co at Camp Shelby. He sailed to North Africa on the same date as my father and also returned on the same date. This entry states he to went North Africa to pick up prisoners of war and bring them back to the United States.

Ongoing Stateside Assignment

There must have been a decision at some point to move men out of the 386th and into other parts of the US Army. Just as Donald R. Montgomery moved on to the 11th Armored Division, my father eventually moved on to the Army Air Force.

The first record I have found of my father’s movement from the 386th MPEG Co is in Special Order (SO) #245 dated September 2, 1943 from the Headquarters of the Technical School and Basic Training Center, Army Air Force Technical Training Command (AAFTTC) at Keesler Field near Biloxi, Mississippi. It states that my father and two other Privates had arrived from Camp Shelby on September 1 and were to be attached for rations and quarters only to the 59th Base Hq and Air Base Squadron on temporary duty for the purpose of receiving a physical examination. The order also references a Special Order #215, Headquarters Reception Center, Camp Shelby, Mississippi dated August 30, 1943. I have not yet found that particular order online.

The morning reports for the 386th MPEG Co show that my father was officially transferred to the Army Air Corps on October 9, 1943, though he was left at Camp Shelby for duty, quarters, administration and rations. The order also references a Special Order #234, Headquarters Fourth Service Command, Atlanta, Georgia dated September 30, 1943. I have not yet found that particular order online. At this point it was just a matter of time before he would leave for a new role.

There were two photos among my father’s papers dated October 23, 1943 that indicate he was still attached to the 386th MPEG Co at Camp Shelby. One of the photos shows what appears to be the entire 386th MPEG Co. The other shows the 16 members of the 386th MPEG’s band.

The morning reports for the 386th MPEG Co for November 10, 1943 show that my father had left the organization and been transferred to Army Air Force Technical Training Command (AAFTTC) Basic Center No 4 Miami Beach, Florida.

Training for a New Role

The morning reports for the 409th Training Group at Miami Beach, Florida for November 12, 1943 include a roster with my father’s name on it, and on November 13 they include a Special Order stating he was qualified as pre-aviation cadet (air crew) with the 409th Training Group, and was assigned to flight X-51.

As of December 7, 1943 my father was eliminated from further training as an aviation cadet. I believe this was due to him having significant hearing loss in one of his ears. He left Miami Beach and was sent to the AAFTTC at Truax Field near Madison, Wisconsin for training as a radar mechanic, arriving just in early January 1944.

There was an identification badge among my father’s papers from his time at Truax Field. Also, in the US National Archives, in the archive Hospital Admission Card Files, 1944 I found a record of my father visiting an Army hospital in March of 1944. According to the admission card, he was diagnosed with a streptococcal sore throat and the station of record for the hospital visit was Truax Field, Wisconsin. The hospital admission records are just a string of numbers that you have to decode, so I won’t be displaying that here.

The morning reports for the 646th Technical School Squadron (TSS) of the 46th Training Group at Truax Field for March 24, 1944 record my father being sent to the hospital, and on April 5 they indicate that he returned to duty. And the morning reports for the 646th TSS for April 22 include a Special Order that shows him being attached 3508th AAF Base Unit, Section “Q”, effective 1 May 1944.

On the Army Air Forces Collection website I have found a digital copy of The Beam dated February 1944. The Beam was the base pictorial and class book for the Radio Operators and Mechanics Technical School at Truax Field. My father is not in this edition so I assume he was in a class later that year. I would love to find a copy with him in it.

In one of my numerous searches I found a syllabus for the Radio-Operator and Mechanics curriculum at the AAFTTC at Souix Falls Army Airfield near Souix Falls, South Dakota. I suspect the coursework at Truax Field was essentially the same. I have also found a tongue-in-cheek flyer published in 1944 about the AAFTTC at Truax Field and base life in general. Lastly, I found a copy of the Radio Operator’s Information File dated June of 1945, that gives information about the operation and maintenance of the radios, radar, and other communications equipment used by the US Army Air Forces. I am sure my father would have had a copy of this document in his possession after completion of is training.

Not all of the training my father received as a radar mechanic occurred at Truax Field. On June 24, 1944 he was transferred to Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois for a class in electronics.

On August 12, 1944, upon completion of the electronics class at Chanute Field, my father was transferred to Boca Raton Army Air Field in Boca Raton, Florida for assignment to the radar mechanic general course.

On September 29, 1944, upon satisfactory completion of instruction in 1st & 2nd echelon maintenance of SCR-729-595-695-515 radar sets, my father was promoted to the grade of Corporal.

Upon completion of his training as a radar mechanic, my father was sent to the Overseas Replacement Depot in Kearns, Utah. It would have been here that he would have been placed with other soldiers going to similar placements overseas. The next step for him woful have been getting his orders to get on a ship and go overseas.

I have yet to find a copy of ‘Special Orders #354, HQ, 3501st AAFBU, Boca Raton AAF, Fla, 19 Dec 1944’, sending him to Kearns Army Air Field, but I have found a reference to it in the special orders from Kearns AAF assigning him to his organization there. Looking at similar orders for others sent from Boca Raton to Kearns, I believe he would have left Florida in mid-December of 1944 and would have been allowed to go home to visit before reporting at the end of the month. I believe the photo at the very top of this page was very likely taken during his time at home over Christmas of 1944.

Deployment to Asia-Pacific Theater of Operations (APO)

Just as with his time in North Africa, my father used to say he spent time in the Philippines, but then relate very little else about his time there. His discharge papers say he left the US on February 5, 1945 and arrived in the Asia-Pacific Theater of Operations (APO) on March 7. I have no documentation directly identifying the port he shipped out of or where he arrived.

From amongst my father’s papers I have a certificate from the US Navy commemorating his first crossing of the equator on February 13, 1945. It gives the name of the ship as the USS Admiral W. L. Capps (AP-121) but does not state what port it set off from or where it was headed. It does show the ship crossed the equator at 0°00’00.0″N 174°22’00.0″W, which is about 100 miles east of Baker and Howland Islands. Howland Island being where Amelia Earhart was headed when her plane was lost during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

The Wikipedia entry for the ship states she was based out of San Francisco, California and took a trip to Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea and Leyte, Philippines at around the time my father should have been in transit but the dates shown are late by 10 to 15 days. However, when I searched in the US National Archives in the collection World War II War Diaries, Other Operational Records and Histories I found USS ADMIRAL W L CAPPS – War Diary, 2/1-28/45, and it shows the USS Admiral W. L. Capps leaving San Francisco on February 5 and arriving Humboldt Bay, Hollandia on February 21 with a passenger compliment of 351 officers, 2,863 enlisted men and one civilian. At Hollandia she took on 21 more officers, 622 more enlisted men and one more civilian. She then joined up with the ships of convoy GI.13A:

• USS Rixey PH-3, a casualty evacuation transport (hospital ship)
• M/S British Columbia Express, a Norwegian troopship, possibly transporting General MacArthur’s wife
• USS Stevens (DD-479, a Fletcher-class destroyer
• USS Young (DD-580), a Fletcher-class destroyer

The convoy left for Leyte on February 28. USS ADMIRAL W L CAPPS – War Diary, 3/1-31/45 shows the USS Admiral W. L. Capps arriving San Pedro Bay, Leyte, Philippines on March 4, disembarking some of her passengers, then leaving March 7 and arriving Guiuan Roadstead, Samar, Philippines the same day where she disembarked her remaining passengers. The March 7 date matches exactly with my father’s discharge papers and I believe it is likely he disembarked at Guiuan on that date.

So Which Bomb Group and Squadron was my Father assigned to?

Based on my father’s discharge papers he was assigned as a radar mechanic to the 13th Air Force (The Jungle Air Force), 42nd Bombardment Group (Crusaders), 390th Bombardment Squadron.

• In early 1945 the 390th BS was based at Sansapor Airfield near the western end of the island of New Guinea in the region that was then known as Dutch New Guinea and is now part of the West Papua province of Indonesia.
• A few weeks after he arrived the 390th BS started operations from either Wama Airfield or Pitu Airfield on the southern edge of the island of Morotai in the region that was then known as Dutch East Indies and is now part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia. The two airfields were adjacent to each other and connected by taxi ways.
• The 390th BS moved with the rest of the 42nd BG to Puerto Princesa Airfield on the island of Palawan in the western Philippines in late March of 1945. He should have remained at Puerto Princesa Airfield until he deployed back to the US.

Alternatively, based on several of the photographs my father took while in the South Pacific and that are linked below, I’m not sure he actually spent his time there with the 13th/42nd/390th. I think he may have actually been temporarily or permanently assigned to the 13th Air Force, 5th Bombardment Group (Bomber Barons), 72d Bombardment Squadron.

Again using his date of arrival and the information available from Pacific Wrecks about the 72d Bombardment Squadron, I can make some educated guesses about where he should have been stationed.

• In early 1945 the 72d BS was based at Pitu Airfield on the island of Morotai.
• The 72d BS and the rest of the 5th BG moved to Guiuan Airfield on the island of Samar in the eastern Philippines in March of 1945. He should have remained at Guiuan Airfield until he deployed back to the US.

Photos from the South Pacific

The following photos were part of my father’s mementos from his time in the service that I became aware of several years after he passed away. Some of the photos have text on the back and if so I scanned both sides. Unfortunately, none of these photos are dated, so I have no way to narrow the timeline any closer than some time during 1945 but after February of that year.

Many of these images contribute to the confusion over which Bombardment Group and Squadron my father was assigned. This is because my father’s discharge papers indicate he was in the 390th BS vs the 72d BS, but these photos imply membership in the latter group. There are also photos of a church on the island of Samar in the Philippines that was less than a mile from Guiuan Airfield, the primary base of the 72d BS, while being over 800 miles away and across the Sulu Sea from the airfield used by the 390th BS. Interestingly, I have found records that during the spring/summer of 1945 the 72d flew bombing missions out of Puerto Princesa Airfield for short periods of time.

Although my father’s notes mention the Immaculate Conception Church in Guiuan being four or five hundred years old, the structure in these photos was built in 1844. The original church was started in 1595 but its wooden structure was destroyed by fire. The structure pictured was severely damaged by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 and is currently under restoration.

Photos of a crashed B-24L “Liberator” bomber

The following photos add more fuel to the notion my father was in the 72nd BS. The following are photos of a B-24L Liberator, 4 engine, heavy bomber, serial number 44-41671, that crashed, possibly near the airfield where my father was stationed. The 390th flew 2 engine, medium bombers, like the B-25 Mitchell, but the pictures of the crash below are all of the larger B-24. The circle on the tail matches the tail insignia used by the 72d BS. Based on the information I have been able to find, the 72d BS operated out of the same or an adjacent airfield on Morotai as the 390th BS in February/March 1945. If these photos were from that small window of time, my father could have taken them even if he were in the 390th. However, I have other information indicating this plane was still in flying condition at least into September of 1945 and I don’t think a plane damaged this badly would have been repaired. Lastly, he again claims membership in the 72d BS when he states this plane was from ‘our’ squadron on the back of the first photo. Much of the information used to identify and place this aircraft came from B-24 Best Web and Joe Baugher’s aircraft serial number lists.

I found another photo of this plane parked along the flight line with the rest of the 72d BS on the website World War Photos. The caption for the photo from the website reads “B-24s of the 5th BG 72nd BS 1945 Samar Leyte”. is the first one on the right, you can tell by large “42” on the tail and if you look closely within the circle on the tail you can make out “441671”, the last six digits of the serial number. The Leyte part of the caption makes little sense since Samar and Leyte are separate but adjacent islands in the Philippines. This would be like stating the location for Toledo as Ohio Michigan. Since the 72d BS didn’t move to Samar until March of 1945, this photo and the wreckage photos above must be from later than that and the wreckage photos almost certainly are from Guiuan Airfield on Samar. The most interesting part of all of this to me is that it’s another data point that places my father with the 72d BS on Samar versus the 390th BS on Palawan.

I requested a copy of the Individual Aircraft Record Card (IARC) for this aircraft from the AFHRA. These cards have been created for every aircraft ever purchased for the US armed forces and they show movement of the aircraft from station to station, starting with acceptance by the US Army Air Forces at the Consolidated-Vultee (Convair) plant in San Diego, California on October 14, 1944, through several west coast airfields, and eventually leaving the US for deployment overseas on November 14, 1944. Unfortunately, for my purposes of tying down where my father was and the date these crash photos were taken there is no record of this aircraft crashing. The IARC ends with the aircraft on the 13th Air Force excess inventory list on December 31, 1945.

When I requested the copy of the aircraft record card for 44-41671 from the AFHRA I also requested a copy of the mission reports for the 72d BS for July and August of 1945. I thought I would get a separate pdf for each month, but instead received a single nearly 2500-page pdf with mission reports from the creation of the 72d Aero Squadron in February of 1918 through the end of World War 2 plus several monthly narrative summaries. In the narrative summary for December of 1944 there is a chart that shows the 72d added two B-24Ls to its inventory, one of which was surely aircraft 44-41671. I also found a record of what I believe to be 44-41671’s first mission. Mission #5-443 dated December 17, 1944 was for 5 B-24s of the 72nd BS plus aircraft from the three other squadrons of the 5th BG against Zettlefield Aerodrome on the Philippine island of Jolo. The aircraft took off from Morotai and all returned safely, though aircraft #671, aka 44-41671, lost oil pressure in one of its four engines and had to return on the power of only three.

I submitted a few of my father’s photos to B-24 Best Web and soon after I received an email from individual whose grandfather apparently flew on this plane. He was assigned to the 13th AF, 5th BG, 72d BS and flew two missions in this plane according to the log records his grandson has. The latter of the two missions was from Samar to the Philippine island of Negros for ground support and occurred August 6, 1945, the day before the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He thought maybe those missions happened later than this crash since he has photos of the aircraft painted differently, but I’d be very surprised if they repaired this plane. I did find a record of what I believe to be the mission he mentioned in the pdf I have from AFHRA. Mission #5-647-S dated August 6, 1945 was for 6 B-24s, including #671, of the 72d BS plus aircraft from the three other squadrons of the 5th BG against Japanese troop concentrations on Negros. The aircraft took off from Samar and all returned safely.

I found a few more photos of this aircraft from the time of the crash. They look like nearly exact copies of the ones I have from my father. They are from a collection of photos from a Master Sergeant Harry William Fox. Based on the other photos in his collection, he was a communications specialist, a member of the 72d BS, and based at Guiuan Airfield. In this photo he is being presented an award and you can clearly see his communications specialist badge. I would think it is very likely he knew my father.

Photos of other US Army Air Force and US Navy aircraft

The B-24s in the last two photos were assigned the to the 31st Bombardment Squadron which was also part of the 5th Bombardment Group and would have been colocated at Guiuan Airfield with the 72d BS during my father’s time in the Philippines. While the 72d BS used black circles as a squadron identifier on the tails of their planes, the 31st BS used black triangles. The other two squadrons of the 5th BG used black squares(23rd BS) and black diamonds (394th BS)

Two final photos

Amongst the mission reports I received from the AFHRA, there was also some narrative information about the goings on at the various stations, promotions, awards, and a few photos. Two of the photos I would like to share here.

The first photo is one of the entire 72d BS on and around one of the squadron’s B-24s. Based on where this photo appears in the narrative, this should be from Guiuan Airfield, Samar, Philippines, it was appears to have been taken after the Japanese surrendered, and I believe my father should be in the photo somewhere.

The second photo is of the bar at the Enlisted Men’s Club for the 72d BS at Guiuan Airfield, Samar. It appears to have exactly the same painting on the wall behind the bar as the photo my father took. The narrative associated with the photo describes the opening of the club in July of 1945.

Last bit about my Father’s Assignment

There is one last piece of information I have that makes me believe my father was assigned to the 72d BS and stationed at Guiuan for most of 1945. On one of the few occasions my father spoke with any detail about his time in service, he talked about going to a neighboring military facility to the one he was assigned to visit another service member from Sparta, Michigan. He mentioned there was one day he was not able to go since there had been some sort of terrible accident and the base had been closed to visitors. I wasn’t astute enough to ask for any more details at the time and now it’s way too late. In my search of any and all information about my father’s time in service I have come across some information that seems to fit this scenario.

Guiuan Airfield was near the town of Guiuan which is in the middle of a small peninsula on the southeast corner of the island of Samar. When the SeeBees built the airfield they also built a naval base about 10 miles away near the tip of the peninsula and the barangay of Ngolos. The US Navy designated this base as #3149.

While searching in the US National Archives I found NAB, SAMAR – War History which contains at lot of detail about the building and organization of the base as well as a chronological history. The entry for August 21, 1945 on page 118 states Explosion of bombs at aircraft jetty killed 25 and injured 16. And then on page 124 as part of the narrative there is an entire paragraph describing the event. It states the men involved were loading fragmentation bombs onto barges for disposal when something caused an explosion. It breaks down the casualties as Navy – 10 killed, 11 injured; Army 15 killed, 1 injured; civilians, 4 injured; total 25 killed, 16 injured.

My Father Contracts Malaria

When talking with my father about his time in the South Pacific, one topic that did come up was the fact that he contracted malaria during his tour. My father did mention that the US Army gave all personnel regular doses of Atabrine but that some soldiers would fake taking it and later spit it out because it turned your skin yellow. He would continue to get very high fevers for a period of time after returning from the war and he was never allowed to donate blood. I have a discharge document from the Veteran’s Administration hospital in Dayton, Ohio from February of 1946 where he must have sought treatment right after discharge from the Army.

Departure from Asia-Pacific Theatre

Based on the Adjusted Service Rating Score used to prioritize repatriation, I believe that by mid-December 1945 my father would have earned 89 points versus the 85 needed to be eligible to return home.

– One point per month from September 1, 1940	63
– One point per month for each month overseas	11
– Five points per each designated campaign (3)	15
– Total	89

Based on the information in his discharge papers, my father left for the West Coast of the US on December 17, 1945 and arrived on January 6, 1946. I don’t have any definitive information telling me which ship he sailed on, which port he shipped out of, or where he arrived. There were over 300 warships assigned to Carrier Division 24, also-known-as Task Group 16.12, also-known-as Operation Magic Carpet, as of November 30, 1945, and that doesn’t include merchant or Army transport ships like the one he took back from North Africa in 1943. I went through an untold number of war diaries and war histories from the US National Archives, as well as other sources like newspaper archives, trying to find a good match for the dates in my father’s records. I did find the following articles from the Waterbury Democrat from January 5th and 7th of 1946. They show several possibilities for ships arriving on the west coast from the Philippines in the timeframe needed.

Using all of the sources available I created the following table of the ships that are possibilities based on dates of departure from the Philippines and arrival to the West Coast as well as carriage of Army personnel. Based on this information I would suspect he returned on either the USS Heywood or the USS Barnstable, though I really have no way to know. If I could find the missing data to complete this table I’d have more confidence.

Ship	Hull No	Dep. Date	Dep. Port	Arr. Date	Arr. Port	Passenger Number & Service Branch
SS Henry S Foote	1041	??	Philippines	1/5/46	San Francisco	811
SS Jane Addams	635	??	Manila	1/5/46	San Francisco	1089 Army, inc 745th AAA Gun Bn
USAT Matsonia	SP-1589	??	Manila	1/5/46	San Francisco	1719 Army, inc 88th Sig Bn
USS Barnstable	APA-93	12/18/45	Tacloban	1/5/46	San Francisco	1895 Army
USS Cape Johnson	AP-172	??	Manila	1/5/46	San Francisco	1497
USS Heywood	APA-6	12/19/46	Leyte	1/5/46	San Francisco	1609 Army, inc 539th & 540th Amphib Tractor Bn
USS Meriwether	APA-203	??	Philippines	1/5/46	San Francisco	2025
USS Wayne	APA-54	??	Subic Bay	1/6/46	Seattle	12 Army & 1675 Navy
SS Carlos Carrillo	698	??	Manila	1/6/46	San Francisco	1397 Army
SS Susan Colby	2213	??	Manila	1/6/46	San Francisco	821 Army
USS General E T Collins	AP-147	12/22/45	Manila	1/6/46	San Francisco	3303 Army
USS Ozark	LSV-2	1/22/45	Manila	1/6/46	San Francisco	1944 Army & some Navy
USS Tabora	AKA-45	1/21/45	Leyte	1/6/46	San Francisco	480 Army

Arriving Stateside for Discharge

My father arrived back stateside on January 6, 1946. After landing, he was sent to Camp Atterbury near Indianapolis, Indiana. His separation papers were processed through that facility, and he was discharged from the service on January 16, 1946. At the time of his discharge he had attained the rank of Sergeant.

Discharge Details

Some interesting things about my father’s Separation Qualification Record are that they gave him credit for 3 months as a private during basic training and then credit for 35 months as a sergeant and radar mechanic. The 38 months total time in service is reasonably accurate, but the Army gave him credit as a sergeant during time when he was most definitely a corporal and made no mention of his time in the 386th MPEG. The Summary of Military Occupations section states “RADAR MECHANIC, BOMBARDMENT: SERVED IN ETO AND PACIFIC AREA AS RADAR MECHANIC, MAINTAINED AND REPAIRED RADAR EQUIPMENT, AIRBORNE, H2X1. MADE TESTS AND ADJUSTMENTS.”

My Father’s Uniform Coat and Cap

The picture above shows my father and my uncle in their service uniforms. Since this photo shows my father’s uniform with the diamond-shaped “Ruptured Duck’ Honorable Discharge emblem sewn above his right breast pocket, it must have been taken some time after January 16, 1946 when he was discharged.

In the picture at the top of the page, my father is wearing his winter service uniform and garrison cap. If you look closely at his left shoulder in that photo you will see the two chevron stripes that signify his then current rank of corporal. The photo just above shows the three chevron stripes indicating my father had attained the rank of sergeant before he completed his service.

Most of my father’s medals and ribbons were lost over the years since his service. I had only one original medal when I started and no ribbons. I’ve collected the missing ribbons my father earned as well as the matching missing medals. I also found the official US Air Force regulations for how the ribbons are supposed to be displayed and have placed the ribbons above the left breast pocket of his coat accordingly.

My father was awarded the following medals:

• Army Good Conduct Medal (upper left), this was the one original medal I still had from my father, I found a corresponding ribbon to go with it.
• American Campaign Medal (upper middle)
• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (upper right)
• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 3 Bronze Stars (lower left), the three bronze stars are for the three campaigns his organization participated in during his time in the Asia-Pacific Theatre; Southern Philippines (2/27/45-7/4/45), Western Pacific (4/17/44-9/2/45), Air Combat Borneo (5/1/45-8/30/45).
• World War II Victory Medal (lower middle)
• Philippine Liberation Ribbon (lower right)

My parents kept my father’s winter service coat and his dress cap. Over the years, a few small holes appeared in the coat and cap, most likely from moths. I found a company in Chicago that can repair these small holes using excess material from seams and other hidden places. We sent them his coat and cap and they repaired the coat and sent them back and the coat looks absolutely beautiful. They said they were unable to fix the cap, but the holes are very small and almost unnoticeable.

The following describes the various patches on my father’s winter service uniform coat:

• Insignia of the United States Army Air Forces on left shoulder
• Insignia of the 13th Air Force on right shoulder
• Sergeant’s Chevron on each shoulder
• Honorable Discharge Emblem over right breast pocket
• Awarded ribbons above left breast pocket. These are described in detail in the previous paragraphs. The two medals are not actually pinned to the coat, they are just lying there for the photo. They are duplicates of two of the ribbons.
• Communications Specialist Patch on right cuff
• 3 Overseas Service Bars on left cuff. One bar for each part of six months served overseas; 1 for the 3 weeks in North Africa, 2 for the 11 months spent in the Pacific Theatre.
• Service Stripe on left cuff

My Father’s Combat Knife

To see the details of my father’s combat knife, go … coming soon…

Details I’d like to be able to fill in

• I’d like to fill in the details of where he was and what he did between late September 1944 and early February 1945.
• Is there available anywhere a copy of the orders sending him to the South Pacific?
• To which bomb group and squadron was my father actually assigned and if both the 13th/42d/390th and the 13th/5th/72d, when and under what conditions was he transferred or temporally assigned and could I get a copy of the orders for those assignments?
• When was he promoted to sergeant and could I get a copy of the orders for his promotion?
• On which ship did he return from the South Pacific to the United States, and could I get a copy of a manifest and/or deck log?

Bibliography

• U. S. National Archives and Records Administration
• United States Army
• United States Air Force
• United States Navy
• Air Force Historical Research Agency
• Army Air Corps Library and Museum
• Naval History and Heritage Command
• Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
• NavSource Naval History
• Army Air Forces Collection
• Pacific Wrecks
• B-24 Best Web
• ConvoyWeb
• Joe Baugher’s US Military Aircraft Serial Number lists
• War Sailors
• History Central
• Wikipedia

Last Updated