78th Coast Artillery Regiment Scrapbook

I received the xeroxed copy of James W Cunningham's Attu scrapbook. I was waiting for. And it has added some insight as to what my grandfather did during the battle and occupation of Attu. I typed out a little snippet from the memorandum to all 78th C.A. members. It seems like they where the grunts of the island that did all the dirty work, Like evacuating the wounded and removing the dead. It also says they were part of the fighting that took place when the Japanese charged through the front lines. So he may have been involved in some hand to hand combat.

The scrapbook also contains quite a few pictures and amazingly my grandfather is in one of them.

I signed a waiver stating I would not publish it, So I can't post scans.

 

See, I told you that your grandfather was probably in the middle of the fighting after all, and it turned out that he was. See what happens when you don't give up and keep digging!

Great job, now take five, smoke'em if you got'em, then get back to work....

 

Thanks!

I'm still waiting for his OMPF. They said it's badly damaged but I sent for a copy anyway. It should be here any day now.

 

Your right it is crazy how much info I have gained in the short time I have been here. I searched casually for years with little success. Until I found ww2talk and they pointed me to this site. I cant thank you guys enough for all your help.

 

Thanks,

I showed my grandma. And she gave me another bit of info that I found interesting. She said he was the driver for the colonel. Among his pictures there is one of him in the driver seat of a jeep, He wrote on the back to keep it safe cause its the only picture of his jeep he had. I have no idea if the other person in the picture is the colonel. But I'm wondering can any knowledge be gained from the numbers on the hood of the jeep?




Also the memorandum contained in the scrapbook was issued by Colonel W. R. Carroll of the 78th C.A. Rg. This may be the person he was the driver for. I searched his name but couldn't find anything.

 

Oh ok, I'm just gonna have to keep searching for info on W. R. Carroll.

 

Minor thing you can get from the jeep marking is late war, probably 1944+, but the jeep itself is early production.

http://www.stugiii.com/images/US_Vehicle_Markings.pdf

probably not much help

 

Sadly I couldn't get any info on my grandpas jeep from the link. But it was interesting none the less. Thanks!

 

Welcome.

Can you give us a summary of what you know so far of WR Carroll, maybe something comes out?

 

I havent been able to find anything. All I know is he was the colonel for the 78th C.A. Rg during the battle for Attu. I assume W.R. are initials and that's why I'm not finding anything. I even did an Ancestry.com search and didn't come up with anything.

 

have you come across this yet?

Attu Guestbook Archives, 020623-050314

and

The Fort MacArthur Museum Association: Veteran Search

and

Coast Artillery Journal

Hope it helps - the last one looks very promising

 

I have seen the Attu guest book. I sent emails to few that posted about the 78th, But I have not received a response. I even signed the guest book asking for info about the 78th and 591st.

I also saw the Fort MacArthur thing. But I wasn't sure if I should contact them, Cause he was never stationed at Fort MacArthur. He entered service at Fort Crook here in Nebraska, He trained at Camp Callan in Lajolla California and was discharged at Camp Fannin in Texas

The coast artillery journal I had not seen. I quickly scrolled through 1 issue and it looks very informative about the life of a coast artillery soldier. there's also some really cool pictures.

Thanks for the links!

 

I've been working through some of those journals - not found anything specific yet for your search but they are a great resource - recommend anyone seeing this thread to have a look. In fact I think I'll post it as a separate thread