Shemya in the Aleutians

[armyjunk2]

Hello folks and Merry Christmas
I have a couple pics which I believe are from Shemya in the Aleutians. Someone here will either have a list of APO's or have them memorized. These came from a Vet's album and could be Attu.

1


2


3


4


5

[armyjunk2]

wow, big

[Second Air Force]

Excellent photos, AJ.

Here is a link to a full listing of APO numbers between January 1942 and November 1947 in numerical order: http://ahecwebdds.carlisle.army.mil/aww ... 1&awdid=18

And here is the same list sorted alphabetically: http://ahecwebdds.carlisle.army.mil/AwM ... &did=22283

APO 729 turns out to be Shemya.

Scott

Last edited by Second Air Force on Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[The Inspector]

PAN AM used Adak as a scheduled trans Pac fuel stop to and from Seattle and Tokyo-

[Speedy]

Now I flew in and out of Adak, which is not exactly a garden spot to deploy to. But compared to Shemya, it was paradise.

Nothing on Shemya except flat and wind. Oh, bone-chilling cold, too.

[Second Air Force]

If they'd have based B-29s on Shemya like they originally planned it would have been a real Gulag for maintenance people. Imagine changing an engine at the revetment like they did in the Marianas........BRRRRRRR!

[The Inspector]

I've thought for many years that Adak would make the perfect maximum security prison. Place a tall fence that goes out 100 yards into the Bearing Sea on either side at the end of the dock. Once you pass through, you're on your own bucko-no guards, no nothing, and you damned sure wouldn't swim away from a place that guarantees you won't last 12 minutes in the water.

Looking closer to the photo of the PAN AM CONNIE (and, by the way today is the 22nd anniversary of PA 103) it looks like everyone under the tail is wearing the same outfit, so it's probably a Navy charter.

The Aleutians were and are a gulag, the 11th A.F. and the Navy fought there all during the war, and it wouldn't be much worse than working on a B-36 outside in the Winter @ Eilson or Ladd in the -65f breezes.

[Second Air Force]

A friend of ours was stationed up there (Adak, I think?) when he was in the Navy, working on P2Vs. He did more than one engine change outside in the "hot" part of the year but didn't recommend it in the winter. He grew up on the flat plains of the Midwest and figured the Aleutians wouldn't be so bad--until he was there for his first winter.

S

EDIT:
Our friend was stationed at Kodiak with his Neptune unit, VP-2.

Last edited by Second Air Force on Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[John Dupre]

I wonder what became of the P-38?

[Speedy]

I've thought for many years that Adak would make the perfect maximum security prison. Place a tall fence that goes out 100 yards into the Bearing Sea on either side at the end of the dock. Once you pass through, you're on your own bucko-no guards, no nothing, and you damned sure wouldn't swim away from a place that guarantees you won't last 12 minutes in the water.

Hah! One of my favorite debate topics. I said that same thing for years. Shortly before I got out of Uncle Sam's Canoe Club we had a new flight surgeon transfer into the squadron. His prior duty station had been NF Adak during 'caretaker' status just prior to it being closed down. At the O' Club one night the topic turned to Adak, and I mentioned the prison scenario...and to my astonishment he said that the State of Alaska had actually looked into that very possibility, but after spending a LOT of money on feasibility studies they determined that it would have resulted in 'cruel & unusual punishment' for the prisoners if they had made it into a max-security prison.

I see. So it's not humane to send convicted hard-core criminals there to serve out their sentences, but it seemed perfectly fine to base 'America's finest' there for 50 years.....

Just like that scene out of Flight of the Intruder where the lawer makes some sarcastic comment about "...sending you to some garden spot like Adak or Diego Garcia" for punishment. Man, I deployed to BOTH of those places and was told I was getting a 'good deal' by the Navy.

[LARGEFLYER]

My father was stationed on Attu for a while during WWII. He was an M. P. in the Army and used to pull guard duty around the airbase there. He had some real horror stories about the weather there and what he called the "willy walls" storms with high winds that would come out of no where. Must have been a nasty place in the winter time.

Greg

[Speedy]

Adak had similar storms. You could literally stand looking one direction and be zero-zero in a blinding, raging snowstorm, yet turn 180 degrees and it would be CAVU to the moon with the bluest skies I've ever seen. That was late winter/early spring.

[armyjunk2]

A couple of very good books on the Aleutian war, The Thousand-Mile War and The Williwaw War, both very good and hard to put down once you start reading. Stan Cohen's The Forgotten War series is a very good set also. I probably forgot something...The weather sucked most of the time.....I was at Dutch Harbor and you could see 3 or 4 different weather patterns at one time...

[Mudge]

A couple of very good books on the Aleutian war, The Thousand-Mile War and The Williwaw War, both very good and hard to put down once you start reading. Stan Cohen's The Forgotten War series is a very good set also. I probably forgot something...The weather sucked most of the time.....I was at Dutch Harbor and you could see 3 or 4 different weather patterns at one time...

You're right. Read 'em both. Very good books. Un-freakin-believable conditions.
Been to Barrow and Deadhorse but they were nothing compared to the Aleutians.

Mudge the hibernator