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Attu War Stories
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 In April of 1945 Samuel "Sparky"
Beard was stationed at Seward, Alaska (HQ Harbor Craft
TC AD At Large). During this
time he was requested by his commander to go on a
mission across the Gulf of Alaska to repair a radio of
a damaged ship having over 300 passengers on board. He
traveled to the ship in a storm along with two tugs to
pump out the damaged ship. When Sam arrived on the
scene, he was taken by a lifeboat to the disabled ship
where after a short inspection of the malfunctioning
radio he found its tubes were missing. After much
searching around the ship he found the tubes in the
captain's cabin, being used to power the Captain's
personal radio. He retrieved the tubes and replaced
them back in the receiver where they belonged.
The receiver was now working, but the transmitter was
not. Further troubleshooting revealed the transmitter
had a red hot final amplifier. He found and replaced a
defective capacitor in the transmitter which resulted
in the ship now having communications both ways. He
went back to his ship in a lifeboat and returned to
Seward. He had been up 36 hours straight. He was
told by the Commander, Major Schott that he would be
submitted for the Soldier's Medal.* Sam was finally
presented his medal in March of 2001.
Here are the names of the people that Sam knew who had also participated in some way on this mission:
* The Soldier's Medal is awarded for valor...heroism not involving actual conflict with the enemy. |
Last Updated: 02 Jun 2006 10:38
