On arriving at Adak via the steamer Toloa on 4/7/43, we got blankets and set up a Quonset hut. After 6pm chow, we had a visitor. He was a Major (a morale officer) with a radio under his arm. He asked if we could fix it for him. I looked at it and saw that it had a broken filament, half of a double filament, in the power tube. We strapped out the bad spot and showed him how it worked. Tokyo Rose was welcoming us, the 17th VHF crew, to the islands. That sure was scary! She thought VHF was very high fliers, not very high frequency.
While using a jackhammer to level a spot for a tower, I ruined my high school graduation gold watch, my most prized possession.
Archie Quick, an electric company line foreman, taught us how to set treated, hundred-foot poles (sometimes dock pilings) using an A-frame, a near-impossible feat using only manpower.
On Shemya, we had a “storm” – 155 MPH wind and snow. I was in the Quonset hut alone with all the radio gear, etc. The hut got buried 100%, and I had to shut off the heat to conserve air to breathe. It took hours to be shoveled out. We had to crawl on our stomachs along a field wire to get to the chow hall.
While on Attu/Alexai Point, we had a General come and ask: “Sergeant, where is your officer?” I replied: “At Supply, getting some supplies. Can I help?” He said he was there to see what was holding up the job. I told him we had only part of our crew there, we needed to dig 1200 feet of ditch to bury the power cable, and we were understaffed. He did an about-face and left without saying a word. At 6am the next morning, we had 200 infantrymen and officers march in, each with a shovel over the shoulder. I took a bundle of stakes and a sledge, and started to lay out the ditch. As I stopped to get my breath and looked, the ditch was following me right up the hill.
I had a visit from Mr. Phillipson, head of Alaska Telephone Company. He asked if I would be interested in working for him. I replied: “No thanks.”
While tuning the new radios at Alexai Point, I heard a flight of returning planes call repeatedly for a D.F. bearing. They sounded desperate, and the base was not receiving them. I gave them a bearing and said they looked to be on course. That evening at chow, I had three pilots there wanting to thank me for restoring their confidence in the equipment. They thought I was a hero.
We returned to HQ in Philadelphia, PA, and I was the only one of the crew sent overseas again. I was NCOIC of the Kipapa Tunnel radio complex, a BIG radio teletype, known as WZJ5, in Hawaii. After a year there, I was sent to Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Ft. Monmouth, NJ. The war ended, and I had to choose between commission with a three-year reenlistment, or discharge as Tech Sergeant. I got out and returned to the old job with Bell Telephone.
Because we moved so often, mail was a big problem. Often no mail came for five weeks, and then we got 18 or 20 letters all at once.
I have the commercial videos of the Attu fight. I don’t enjoy them much. That’s a part of life I can do without.
4/27/44 – got orders to go home and cut baggage to a hundred pounds
4/28/44 – flew to Adak
4/29/44 – flew to Port Heiden, ate dinner, then flew to Ft. Richardson. I had a BIG night at the NCO club.
4/30/44 – moved to Hotel Parsons in Anchorage. The room was $2 per night, and I shared it with seven others. Bed bugs kept us awake. The place was jammed because of a lottery on when the ice would go out. I got a haircut – $1.50; pie and coffee – $0.35; shoe shine – $0.25; beer – $0.40; shot – $0.60.
5/4/44 – had to reduce my baggage to 55 pounds and leave Ft. Richardson. I arrived in Seattle at 11pm. The city lights were the most traumatic experience after 14 months of blackout.
5/13/44 – spent two weeks on furlough at my parents’ home in Port Allegany, PA. I got married. I reported to Army Communication HQ in Philadelphia. I got new uniforms, and everything was too big.
