Honor Flight DFW trip#9 profiles

On December 7, 1941 Howard was at his home on California Avenue in Akron Ohio. He doesn’t say how he heard the news in his application, but probably someone heard the announcement on the radio around noon on that Sunday, and let Howard and everyone in shouting distance that a war was on. The next question was “Where was Pearl Harbor” and “How did we let the Japanese attack us by surprise?”

Howard joined the Coast Guard on July 21, 1942 at the age of 21. His basic training was conducted at Curtis Bay Maryland. He trained in among other specialties, HFDF also known as “Huff Duff.” He continued his training in Puerto Rico for six months, then to Atlantic City New Jersey.

After training Howard was shipped to the Aleutian Islands, specifically Attu and Adak islands. The Aleutian Islands during WWII were part of the Alaskan Territory. On June 3, 1942 small Japanese force occupied Attu and Kiska islands. The remoteness of the islands and the severe weather meant that it took nearly a year for American forces to eject them.  The importance of the islands was clear to the Japanese Empire since whoever controlled this area controlled the Pacific Great Circle routes.

The U.S. also feared that the islands would be used as bases to launch aerial assaults on the west coast of the U.S. and Canada.

The battle for the Aleutians is sometimes called the “Forgotten Battle.” This was because it occurred and was overshadowed by the simultaneous Guadalcanal Campaign in the Solomon Islands. Americans were riveted back home to reports on the radio of Marines and soldiers fighting for Clark Field on Guadalcanal.

Eventually American and Canadian forces overcame the Japanese occupiers in the frozen wastelands that were the Aleutian Island chain. Quickly Army engineers went about constructing airfields and communication bases on the islands, hoping the Japanese stayed away. They did, never to return.

Howard’s assignment in the Aleutians was radio repair and high frequency training. He also was tasked with listening in and intercepting Japanese radio broadcasts. The islands that Howard lived and served on were cold and hostile. Some servicemen succumbed to the remoteness and the harsh weather of the area. Loneliness and boredom caused many to crack under the pressure. Most however, like Howard accepted his assignment, and did his duty to the best of his ability.

Howard was on Attu Island when he heard that the atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima. No doubt he could now dream that the war was close to an end, and that he could go home. An invasion of the Japanese home islands would not be necessary. The estimated million Japanese and Allied servicemen that would have died in the Operations Olympic and Coronet, and a war that reportedly would have gone on until 1948-49 would live to see late 1945 and beyond.

Howard took advantage of the GI bill, as millions of other servicemen and women did, and graduated from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio in 1950 as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He received a discharge from the Air Force as a 1^st Lieutenant on August 31, 1959.

Howard and his wife Grace, now live in Austin Texas.