|
Post by one50 on Aug 16, 2008 9:22:55 GMT 8
I found where 6 members of the 503d were buried before they were returned to the states. They were buried in Australia. US MILITARY CEMETERY TOWNSVILLE LOCATED AT BELGIAN GARDENS, TOWNSVILLE, QLD home.st.net.au/~dunn/locations/uscemeterytville.htmAkins, A.L. Blalock, Henry J. Kobeska Langer, Joseph E. Petrie, Bernard R. Wilbur, Myron A. Two of the men, Akins and Langer, are not on the Honor Roll list. Wondering if they were 503d as stated on the above website. Does anyone have any other information on these 6 men, or anything they would like to add about their internment in Townsville? Thanks Dan
|
|
|
Post by EXO on Aug 17, 2008 22:28:20 GMT 8
Checked up on those six 503d burials originally interred in Townsville. I too have heard that US Servicemen who had been buried in Australia were repatriated to the US (or Hawaii's Punchbowl Cemetery, actually) or buried privately. They wouldn’t show up as being in the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) database. Akins, A.L. – not on my list, certainly looks right – though we will need to follow up that 9 digit serial number. Interesting that the local list has the same DOI for both Akins and Petrie, though their DOD’s are different. I wonder if they had coroner’s inquests. Blalock, Henry J. My list has his DOD as 23 December 1942. Chet Nycum agrees, it was just before Christmas. Kobeska – My list has him as Kobiska, John. We’ll need to have a look at that SN 36222037. Also my list’s DOD is 21 Feb 1943 so a 31 March DOI is interesting. Langer, Joseph E. – My list didn’t have him at all. Wonder what SN6932191 has on him? Petrie, Bernard R. – added his SN – His DOD was 24 Feb. Both Petrie and Kobiska were training accidents, drowning in the Little Mulgrave River. Wilbur, Myron A. - I added his SN and DOI to my list. The link to the list is: corregidor.org/taps/control/kia_full_listing.htmI will cc to the paratroopers I have on e-mail to see if any of them know, of their own sources, of A.L. AKINS and Joseph E. LANGER, and the correct spelling of Kobeska/Kobiska.
|
|
|
Post by Bert Caloud on Aug 18, 2008 6:21:52 GMT 8
The exact details (dates etc) are in their burial file which they can send for but I looked up the pattern for Australian burials in my manuals to make sure I got it right.
From Townsville they would have been exhumed and reburied in the Ipswitch cemetery, exhumed from Ipswitch and taken to the Mausoleum in Schofield Barracks Hawaii where they had a Central Identification Point. The remains would have been run thru the final attempt at ID, remains (skeletal by then) wrapped in white linen, green military blanket and casketed. Then the casket placed in a shipping container to await disposition instructions from the family.
If it was an ID'd remains it was either returned to the US at the request of the Next of Kin or buried in the Punchbowl. If the remains could not be ID'd they were buried in the Punchbowl as "Unknown."
Bert
|
|