WWII Vet Heads to Alaska for Aleutian Islands Ceremony

[darrels joy]

By ED STOVER
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Published on Saturday, July 24, 2004

It's the World War II battle the world forgot.

But Bill Hambelton, a veteran of that battle, is doing his best to make sure the 14-month-long Aleutians Campaign fought on the wild extremes of the Alaskan Peninsula gets its due.

"What a lot of people don't realize is we fought a war in Alaska," says the 85-year-old Yakima native, who served in the Aleutians with the Army Air Corps 10th Emergency Rescue Boat Squadron.

The campaign lasted from June 1942 through August 1943, and saw the Japanese soldiers who occupied the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska become the first foreign invaders to occupy American soil since the War of 1812.

Some 1,067 Allied military men and women died, were captured or were interned in the campaign to liberate the Aleutians, and Hambelton and his wife, Mary, will leave for Alaska on Thursday to pay their respects when a brand-new, polished black granite Remembrance Wall is dedicated to the Allies' memory.

The dedication is Aug. 12 at Merrill Field, the Anchorage airfield that became a major staging area for the 11th Army Air Corps during the war.

It is a ceremony in which Hambelton has a personal stake. That's because he helped make it happen.

"I wrote a letter to the mayor of Anchorage," says Hambelton, recalling that day in 2002 after he and Mary visited the 11th Army Air Force Memorial at Merrill Field that had been dedicated the previous year.

Hambelton was appalled by what he saw. That's because the memorial was in disrepair. Nobody was taking care of it.

"I called John Cloe," says Hambelton, referring to the civilian historian of the 3rd Wing of the 11th Air Force at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage. "He said, 'Bill, would you write a letter to the mayor?'"

Hambelton did just that, and Cloe says Hambelton's letter gave important impetus to a growing campaign to spruce up the memorial, which had no official caretaker.

"Bill was upset, there were a lot of other people who were concerned, and Bill's letter definitely helped the cause," says Cloe.

The result was a committee that decided not only to clean up the site, but to enhance it with a new Remembrance Wall to the 1,067 casualties of the Aleutian Campaign.

The new mayor of Anchorage, Mark Begich, got on board, as did the Edward J. Monaghan Chapter of the Air Force Association, which raised more than $30,000 in cash donations and more than $100,000 in in-kind contributions.

Those gifts resulted in a greatly expanded memorial, which includes the new wall on which are etched the names of the Allied casualties.

"It's worth honoring those personnel," says Hambelton, who will travel with Mary by ferry to Anchorage, then return home by car after the ceremony.

"It's (the Aleutian Campaign) part of the story of Alaska, but it's also a story for the nation for people who don't realize we fought a war in Alaska in 1942 and '43."

Cloe thinks now the memorial and Remembrance Wall will get their proper due. Two local chapters of the Air Force Association are working to establish a foundation for upkeep of the site.


* To help with the memorial, contact the Edward J. Monaghan Chapter 103, Air Force Association, P.O. Box 6033, Elmendorf AFB, AK 99506.

Courtesy photo
The Eleventh Air Force and Americans Home from Siberia Memorial was dedicated Oct. 6, 2001, during a reunion of the World War II Eleventh Air Force veterans in Anchorage.