The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The War in the Aleutians - Feb 17th, 2003

http://www.hlswilliwaw.com/aleutians/Aleutians/html/aleutians-wwii.htm ^

[Jen]

~~~~~SALUTE~~~~~ to your father for serving in the Army especially in such an inhospitable location. Thanks for dropping in to the Foxhole.

These threads can be a challenge for dial-up, but it may help to set your preferences to 20 posts per page, rather than 50.

[Jen]

Thank you for telling us about your dad and for giving SAMWolf the idea for this wonderful thread and assisting him with the research. I wish your dad was able to see it along with your mom.

[Jen]

My kids were in elementary school (1st and 3rd grades) when I deployed for Desert Storm.

Any deployment is hard on the family members left behind, especially kids. But when they know mom or dad is going off to war for an undetermined length of time, it's millions times worse. But the military always takes care of its own and support will be there for families of deployed troops.

God bless and protect our servicemen and women in harm's way and give them swift, complete victory.

[Jen]

Prayers offered for Auntie Mame's nephew.

[Jen]

Not a Belgian waffler, our awesome founding father. (^:

Thank God for that! And that our current president isn't either.

[Jen]

Howdy Phil!

[Jen]

Hi Victoria. Are you frozen solid yet?

[Jen]

Military Police Help Train French to Surrender

HAHAHAHAHA! Sam, I don't think the Frenchies need any more training for that!

[Jen]

Helllllllooooooooo???? Am I left alone to talk to myself again? :-(

[Samwise]

The thanks should all go to the other Sam--the one who does all the hard work on these threads. I have learned quite a bit of history from him. If I knew how to post a personal picture on here, I'd put a picture of Dad on it. I think he'd like that. I know he would love all of you guys.

[Iris7]

Enjoyed your stories. For an old Navy EM I am not very familiar with this engagement. There were some men on our ships in those days.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[Iris7]

I just missed you, fond regards -

[Iris7]

Good thread Sam, enjoyed it.

I don't enjoy talking bad about French soldiers. They have many fine men. The failure in 1940 was in the Corp and Army (and higher) training doctrine and leadership. Caused by corrupt socialist political leadership. Even today la legion etrangier is a serious outfit.

[Jen]

Can you send a pix to me by email? I can upload it to my server and post it for you. FReepmail me for my email address if you want to.

[skeeter]

Honk!

[archy]

Sam, my maternal grandfather, George Stevens, was a Navy torpedoman who earned a Navy Cross, among other awards, for his service during WWI. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, he attempted to reenlist in the Navy, but was told he was too old; accordingly, he went to the Army instead, who upon discovering he was a fairly senior researcher with Bell Telephone's Western Electric labs, commissioned him as a first lieutenant in the Signal Corps. Interestingly, shortly thereafter, he received a very nicely worded letter inviting him to rejoin the Navy and inviting him to an interview, which he showed up for in his new Army officer's outfit....

But the Army realized he was not going to be a frontline combat officer, and figured that his technical ability with wire and wireless communications could be put to use in a nice safe backwater area of the war, and so a couple of months later they sent him off to the Aleutians. He was, among other things, the radio operator who received and passed along the messages transmitted by Charles Foster Jones detailing the initial Japanese attack.

Happily, the events which caught up with him there were neither his first time in combat nor the first time he'd taken fire personally. Though not trained as an Infantry officer, he successfully operated as one, and in one case led a neat ambush for a Japanese naval landing party that resulted in their complete annihilation and the capture of their two backpack radios, of much interest to those interested in intercepting Japanese tactical communications.

I still have the Japanese radioman's rifle that Granddad took from the radioman who no longer needed anything of this world, as well as the M1903 Springfield and M1911 pistol he took along when the Signal Corps tried to foist off an M1 carbine upon him; he'd been a competitor in the New Jersey state rifle matches in the 1920s and '30s and the idea of going to war with the pipsqueak carbine was a bit unsettling to him. Among his other accomplishments, he later served as the New Jersey state commander of the VFW, and he was still residing there when he passed away a couple of decades back. But he always had one foot planted in the American west, in New Mexico and Wyoming, and the Homestead Act property he developed remains in the family and will so long as I have my say about it.

And the Japanese tried to make war against a nation of such men. The fools.

-archy-/-

[SAMWolf]

Thanks archy for sharing your dad's story with us.

I thank him for his service to our country.

[SAMWolf]

Opps, Sorry. Youre Grandfather.

[Dubya]

My kids were in elementary school (1st and 3rd grades) when I deployed for Desert Storm. Any deployment is hard on the family members left behind, especially kids. But when they know mom or dad is going off to war for an undetermined length of time, it's millions times worse. But the military always takes care of its own and support will be there for families of deployed troops. God bless and protect our servicemen and women in harm's way and give them swift, complete victory.

Thanks for the info. I am sure it was extra hard for you and others to leave behind your children.God bless you for your service to our great country.