The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-05-24

that he would be, but for once the weather gave us the break. That's something Aleutian weather isn't in- cllned to do, For once we stopped cussng 1t; we blessed 1t for q change for It gave us perfect cover.
 In fact, for q long time l can't reveal how long it was-we couldn't SC the how from our position in the stern. The greater share of 1 the men under my Comamnd were hardly able to get up from below for a breath of air, the boat was pitching and tossing that violetly. Consequently fc wsay the fog. There was plenty of deck space to view it from, but you cant blame man for not wanting to take the chance of being tossed overheard into 1900 iathoms of freezing water,
 On arrival dayn we had to creep along the shore, straining our eyes to spot reefs which on later, clearer days, looked like "hog backs in Arkansas. We effected our landing and joined the first echolon. Many things happened to our task force during our entire operation which I am not at liberty to tell. But we did get to Amchitka pretty much intact.
 M outfit still had by far their greatest task ahead of them. That was constructing a0 airport and the first part yf that task, was of YNf NIYt ashore" The assistant motor of- liccr, Lieut.. Dregnick, and myself with about 40 men, went for two days and two nights without food or sleep. The lieutenant and my self went four days and nights without either. We were up against tough customer not the Jap, right then, at lcaSt--but the ocean,
 We had to prepare roads and get the field started. MT, Nip might get wind of our plans and get ornery. Unloading the heavy stuff involved plenty of headaches, one Of which was to SC el0 tons of steel bend, the heavy timberS VIC used as ramps, tip over sideways, and plunge ten- odd feet into rolling sea. It was quite q sight sight 10 Ge cthC oper- ators below scramble for safety, and somehow or other we always got c laugh out of 1t,
 We were getting pretty well un- der way when the clouds decided to open up, and who should pop out but little Nippo loaded with eggs to put a crimp in our landing and VIC soon got used to lt. Mon otonous," as the boys ut it.
 T8hc physical obstacles were al- most impossible to overcome. AL most, but not quite. The engineer ing staff performed what was to be a miracle. A couple Of Texas boys highway engineers de luxe and real officers, under the able leader ship of our C. o, and executive ot- ficcr-and all others concerned, got things shaped up for big things to come.
 One fine day three zcros paid ts call. IL was the end of their call ing days, for our P JOS blasted them out of the skies in full view of every soldier on the island. You should have heard the cheers. Helmets, gas masks, bayonets, rifles, hats, clothes and a couple of soldiers got tossed into the air. It was first blood" for some, old stuff to others but we all got bang out Of 1t l doubt we'll ever forget. From that day on Architka was our home, a place we were going to hang on to, come what may.
 This was in January. It wasn't all new stuff to me because last August we set up business at Adak, in the Andreanoff Islands.
 Some of the men in that outfit bucked the Boring Sea in four masted schooner. It took intrepid soldiers to ship in that old scoW for there is on sea on the globe so rough and dastardly as the Boring. | know from first hand experience, having put in a few thousand miles on it at its worst.
 Once arrived in Adak, big Job was tackled and bundled up ln what amounted to lightning speed. When you prepare field where Flyin. Fortrcsses and Liberators arc