Wally's Index

Wally Nadel
World War II in the Aleutians - Shemya (APO 729)
January 26, 1943 to January 27, 1946

1. Recap of Army Facilities

Ft. Benjamine Harrison, Indiana

Ft. McClellan - Anniston, Alabama

Camp Shenango - Pennsylvania

Ft. Lawton - Seattle, Washington

Fort Sheridan - Illinois

Port of Embarkation

Shemya

2. Conscription - the Draft

3. Selection Process

4. Shemya

5. General S. B. Buckner, Jr.

6. Major A. Brindle

7. My Outfit

8. My Buddies

9. Supply Sergeant

10. Army Medical Experience

11. Civilian Contractors

12. Potpourri

13. Returning to the States

14. Coincidences

15. Unspoken Concerns

 

 

SELECTION PROCESS/ASSIGNMENTS

 

Whenever an entire group, battalion, company, or platoon was ordered

outside with both your "A" bag (currently used items and clothes) and your

"B" bag, (infrequently used items), you know that you're going somewhere.

 

This event usually occured around 4:00 AM on a cold, dark Winter morning.

Rumors were flying, sometimes right, frequently wrong.  Names were called

out and those men were marched away.  This broke up many friendships.

Not good for the men but necessary for the war effort.

 

Another group of names were called out, and those men were marched off

in a different direction.

 

These groups could be 4 th grade educationally challenged men who were sent

somewhere for intensive A. B. C. indoctrination      OR    to waiting trains

which carried them to ports of embarkation    OR    left behind in the same

camp to assist the permanent cadre train new inductees   OR   on rare occasions,

some whose I.Q. scores exceeded 110, but without college indicated on their

records.  This group was usually selected for specialized training.

 

This was the case of the 24 men I was with who ended up in Seattle, undergoing

a 2-month course in harbor maintenance, ie., the use of cranes, securing

vessels, boy-scout type knot tying, life-saving equipment & techniques, etc.

 

In late afternoon, trucks came to pick us up and return us to our quarters in

Fort Lawton.  This camp was a processing center for men leaving for Alaska

and the Aleutians.  It was quite beautiful, overlooking Puget Sound.  To my regret,

while attending a wedding on the West coast, I purposefully visited the Seattle

area and found out that the campsite was turned into a large park.  I just wanted to

relive a bit of my past!

 

These same 24 men were subsequently shipped out together, and stayed together

for over two years, after a request was sent for their services for a remote Island

in the Aleutians called Shemya.

 

© Wally Nadel 2007

Dr. Will R. Eubank - Adak 1943    Map of Alaska