Gender

Male

Birth date

1917-3-25

Place of birth

Del Rey CA, U.S.A.

Inducted

1941-6-1, Ft. Ord CA

Enlistment type

Draftee

Service branch

Army

Service type

War

Units served

MISLS Sec 22 (Graduated Savage, July 1943)
5th Radio Mobile Squadron--attached to 10th Air Force for Burma War
5th Radio Mobile Squadron--attached to 14th Air Force in China War--Chennult's Flying Tiger

Military specialty

Military Intelligence Service;
Language Specialist

Stationed

USA: Ft. Ord, CA; Camp Walter, TX; Camp Savage, MN; Mc Dille Field, FL
Other Countries: Chabua India (Assam) (10th Air Force Hq); Kunming, China, 14th Air Force Hq & Central China Liangshan

Separated

Camp Beale CA

Unit responsibility

To gather Japanese voice conversations from airplane to airplane and airplane to ground communications. We, also received coded Japanese kana and numbers. After graduating Camp Savage, few of us were sent to Signal Corp School in Tampa, FL to learn morse code and the kana alphabet code. We just received the coded messages on typewriters.

Personal responsibility

To foresee all the intelligent information gathered and sent to the Hdq. daily and monthly.

Major battles (if served in a war zone)

Burma War and China War

Awards, medals, citations (individual or unit)

The 5th Radio Mobile Squadron Unit (Military Intelligence Unit) received the meritorious award citation. We were members of this unit. Our unit was composed of Caucasians and few Niseis which helped shorten the air war in Burma and China.

Living conditions

During the Burma War, we lived or slept in small huts (2 persons to a hut) made of bamboo. It rained a lot, 600 inches a year.
Only meat we had was spam, day in and day out.
Since it was such a remote area, no entertainer ever came. We played cards, read books and had beer.
We bathed in cold water showers.
In China, we slept in buildings and had hot and cold water showers.

Most vivid memory of military experience

Going overseas, we flew out of Florida in a 4 engine cargo plane. We refueled in Bermuda, Azores, Casa Blanca, Africa, Tripoli, Cairo, Egypt, Arab country and Karachi, India, Calcuta, India, Assam India. We got to see the world. We took awhile getting to our destination because we caught any available plane we could get. Some had time visiting the Casa Blanca pyramids in Cairo; grape fields in Karachi, India; Ganges River in Calcutta, India; tea plantation in Assam.

Missed most whilst in the military

Overseas, one begins to realize how clean the USA is. Over there, one smells the sewage all day long. I longed to see the Sierra Nevada Mts. and the valley.

Most important thing, personally, to come from military experience?

War is hell. That is why we are reluctant to talk about the war.

Additional information

Residence: Del Ray, CA