WWII: US Army
Medical Corps
300th Medical Hospital
Army service number: 38 209 034
Private
Although the Application for Headstone indicated he was KIA, an additional notation stipulated NB - non battle.
A synopsis of Private Abanathy's unit: The 300th General Hospital was activated on 15 July 1942, at Camp Forrest, near Tullahoma, Tennessee. It was comprised of 56 commissioned officers, 1 warrant officer, 105 nurses and 500 enlisted men. The enlisted men received two weeks of basic training in topics such as individual defense and protection, dismounted drill, interior guard duty, military courtesy and discipline, equipment, clothing, tent pitching, etc., before they were assigned to specialist schools. In February 1942 an additional thirteen weeks of training was directed. On July 22, 1943 the organization was alerted for overseas movement and on 11 August the personnel were transported from Camp Forrest on 2-ton trucks to the Tullahoma railroad station. The train carrying the enlisted personnel arrived at Camp Shanks, Orangeburg, New York on August 13, 1943. Following final preparations for overseas movement, the unit moved to New York Harbor and embarked for North Africa on August 21, 1943 aboard U.S. Army Transport Thomas H. Barry, formerly the passenger liner Oriente. Despite an attack by German U-boats on 02 September, the transport arrived at Bizerte Harbor, Tunisia in the early morning of 04 September 1943 and debarked in the afternoon. Once on land the personnel were transported again via 2-ton vehicles to a site between Ferryville and Mateur, Tunisia. There the staff found rows of pyramidal tents with folding cots already in place - while the enlisted men set about erecting pup tents. The site was in a wheat field surrounded by barren land without trees, bushes, or grass; it quickly became known as the Camel Pasture. While temperatures were bearable during the day, nights were unpleasantly cold. On 22 October 1943, the 300th General Hospital was reassigned to the Fifth United States Army which was engaged in the second phase of the Allied campaign in Italy - the first phase. On 10 November, following the successful landings at Salerno by combat troops, the hospital personnel boarded the US Army hospital ship Shamrock in Bizerte Harbor and anchored off Naples the following morning. The hospital went ashore on 16 November 1943 and remained there until 31 March 1946. (RJCarr: Summarized from the unit history (http://www.med-dept.com/unit-histories/300th-general-hospital/)
WWII: US Army
Headquarters, 5th Air Force
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon
WWII Victory Medal
Major
Honorably discharged on 20 APR 1944 (age: 55)
WIKI: During World War II, Fifth Air Force units first engaged the Japanese during the Philippines Campaign (1941–1942), then afterward withdrawing to Australia after the Japanese conquest of the islands. Rearmed, it engaged the Japanese in New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies and then as part of the liberating forces in the Philippines Campaign (1944–45).
Name: William A Jr Autwell
Service Info.: PFC US ARMY WORLD WAR II
Birth Date: 28 Jul 1920
Death Date: 4 Dec 1994
Service Start Date: 10 Jun 1944
Interment Date: 7 Dec 1994
Cemetery: Houston National Cemetery
Cemetery Address: 10410 Veterans Memorial Drive Houston, TX 77038
Buried At: Section G2 Site 1393
WWII:
US Navy
Sonarman 2nd Class (SoM2c)
Jerome enlisted in the Navy just over two weeks following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Following his basic training and specialty training, he reported for duty on the destroyer Dickerson (DD157) on 06 Nov 1942. The destroyer departed port on “30 Nov 1942 and escorted convoys between New York and Cuba until January 1943. In the first half of 1943, Dickerson operated in the Caribbean and escorted tanker convoys to Gibraltar and Algiers. She joined the Card hunter-killer group at Casablanca in June for offensive operations in the middle Atlantic. Between 17 July and 13 August, she sailed to Derry, Northern Ireland, for exercises with British Fleet units, returning to Charleston, S.C., for conversion to a high-speed transport.†(Wikipedia)
On 25 Sep 1943 SoM2c Barton was transferred to the YMS-45, which was a minesweeper assigned to the 4th Fleet operating in the South Atlantic out of the port at Recife, Brazil. On 11 Jun 1945, with war in Europe concluded, YMS-45 was detached from the 4th Fleet to report to CTG 29, an escort carrier task group operating with the USS Santee. On that date the CTG was operating in the East China Sea in support of operations near Okinawa. On 15 August the CTG was en route to the Philippines from Guam when it was informed of the end of hostilities in the Pacific. (Wikipedia)
(https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/9465.html)
b
