Andrew S. Kurish, Military Notes 1942-1944

U.S. Army Quartermaster/Ordnance

Foreward by Richard Kurish: The following information was transcribed from a small (3 x 4 1/2 inch) Diary and Address Book, kept by Andrew Kurish, during the period from January 1942 until September 1944. The entries are generally brief notations, and unless otherwise indicated are transcribed exactly as entered. Text contained within brackets [ ] is information that expands upon, clarifies, or adds additional detail to the entries. The information within the brackets was provided by Andrew Kurish during conversations in 2001. He was 82 years old at the time. Text contained within parentheses() was added by the transcriber to clarify or add information.

Many of the notations within the diary are records of routine expenditures for everyday items and have only been transcribed if the expenditure was unusual.

Andrew Kurish was inducted into the Army within a month of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Before he left he became engaged to Betty Bryner on December 16, 1941. The diary notations begin with his induction below.

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• Inducted January 6, 1942 at Camp Perry, Ohio
• Left Camp Perry on January 9, 1942
• Arrived Fort Francis E. Warren in Wyoming on January 10, 1942 and left on March 13, 1942. [ This was for basic training]
• Arrived Fort Lawton, Washington on March 16, 1942 and left April 12,1942.

Arrived Fort Richardson, Alaska on April19, 1942 and left?

• Air Raids -
  • April 23-24, 5:00am [These were actually alerts, no actual raids by Japanese planes ever occurred]
  • May 29, 1:05am
  • June 3, 8:00pm
  • June 4, 12:30am
• May 1942 - Defense Bond
• June 10, 1942 - Went and had a lot of fun on maneuvers in the woods.
• June 15, 1942 - Rained
• June 23,1942 - P-40 airplane crash
• August 10, 1942 - Promoted to PFC
• September 3,1942 - Allotment $20.00
• September 14,1942 - Snowed on Mountains
• October 8, 1942 - Snowed (it is unclear if this entry was made at Fort Richardson or Adak Island. It was around this time that he was sent to Adak)

Arrived Adak Island [I was told by military personnel on the island, that the island had only been occupied by U.S. Forces for about a month]. ( This would probably mean that he arrived during October or early November. The air raid on November 11, was listed in the diary under Adak air raids.).

• Air Raids
  • November 11, 1942, 9:15 - 11:15pm [Again, these were all alerts only]
  • November 15, 1942, 8;00 - 9:00pm
  • November 17, 1942, 7:00 -8:00pm
  • January 12, 1943, 1:00 - 2:30am
  • March 27, 1943, 9:30 -10:30pm
  • April 17, 1943, 10:00 - 11:00pm
  • May 17, 1943, 10:00 - 10:30pm
  • July 15, 1943, 6:00 - 6:30am
  • July 21, 1943, 9:20 - 9:50pm
• November 19, 1942 - washed with 1 and 1/2 gallons of water; ate sausage, corn, and lima beans for dinner.
• November 26, 1942 - Ham, beans, potatoes, and pie. (This may have been Thanksgiving dinner)
• December 4 and 5, 1942 - All planes took off.
• December 25, 1942 - Christmas, turkey dinner, and I worked Christmas eve and Christmas day.
• January 21, 1943 - Seven B-17 Flying Fortresses came in. One had part of tail shot off.
• February 3, 1943 - Three Cruisers and three Destroyers in the bay.
• March 15 and 16, 1943 - Bombers taking off all day for Kiska
• ?????? - On my way up here, two Cruisers and 5 Destroyers. ( this entry is listed where it appears in the diary. It doesn't seem to fit here, but I don't know what it relates to.)
• March 26, 1943 - Bombers took off at noon to meet Japanese convoy. Weather was very bad. One Destroyer and one Cruiser sunk Japanese. St. Louis, St. Paul, Salt Lake (This entry is confusing. It seems to be two entries. Were the ships mentioned involved in the battle, and were they sunk?)
• April 7, 1943 - Snowstorm and wind was blowing at 118 miles per hour.
• Easter - I cooked my own dinner. Two eggs and pudding
• April - Snowed 21 straight days in April
• May 7, 1943 - Africa , Tunisia and Benghazi fell
• May 11, 1943 - Troops invade Attu
• July 7,1943 - Spent 60 cents on fishing equipment
• July 9, 1943 - Troops invade Sicily
• July 10, 1943 - Planes bombed Paramoshiro
• July 23,24,25,26, 1933 - The sun shone for four straight days
• August 5, 1943 - Boys from the State landed by barges [These were the troops that Were to invade Kiska. They practiced landing at Kuluk Bay on Adak]
• August 15, 1943 - Troops landed on Kiska at 6;20am. No opposition. (Unknown to the landing forces, who expected a battle, the Japanese had evacuated the island just before the landing)
• September 8, 1943 - Italy surrenders
• September 10, 1943 - Boarded the ship Henry Failing about 10:00am. Left Adak at 8:00pm.

Arrived Amchitka Island, at 3pm September 11, 1943

• October 6, 1943 - Japanese bomb Kiska and Attu. (In this entry, the words Japanese And bomb, are stricken out. The words Kiska and Attu remain. Perhaps it was an erronous report that the islands were bombed)
• October 6, 1943 - We went on alert about 4:00pm
• October 9, 1943 - Three days of alert ended at 9;00pm
• October 13, 1943 - Japanese bomb Attu around 8:00pm. On alert until about 9:00am.
• October 26, 1943 - Snowed a little
• November 3, 1943 - On alert 9;00pm to about 8;00am

Left Amchitka Island, September 6, 1944 at about 5;00pm.

Arrived Adak Island, about 9am September 7, 1944.

Left Adak Island, September 7, 1944 at 2;15pm

Arrived at Dutch Harbor, September 9, 1944, at about 9;00am and left at 10;00AM.

Arrived in Seattle, Washington, September 16, 1944 about 7:30am.

Left Seattle, Washington, September 19, 1944 about 9:35pm.