Army Air Corps
Wilfred Carney, my dad and father of 7 children. Wilfred enlisted in Nov. 1942 and was discharged in Sept. 1945. He was assigned to the 135th Signal Battalion in the 12th Air Corps. The Signal Battalion allowed his training in Telephone and Telegraph. He was a Lineman responsible for setting up lines of communication. While out on assignment with a fellow Lineman, he drove up to a German soldier who had climbed a telephone pole and was ready to use a bolt cutter to disrupt communication lines. They captured him and took the man in as a Prisoner of War. Wilfred served in Africa, Italy and France.
Sgt. Peter David was assigned to the 80th Fighter Squadron and had the distinction of Burma Banshees. They were part of the 10th Air Force stationed in Karachi, India. Peter was a mechanic and Crew Chief servicing P-40 Warhawks, fighter and ground attack aircraft. Between 1943 and 1945 the P-40s were escorting air cover to support supplies to the 14th Air Force in China. The Northern route was the most vulnerable as the Japanese fighters would routinely attack unarmed transports. These fighters had a death skull painted on the engine cowling. They also had a belly mounted siren referred to as the “Banskee Wail” to further intimidate the Japanese.
Tech Sgt. Lorraine Cote. My aunt was born in 1919 in Caribou, Maine. Lorraine trained as a Medical Tech, (nurse) and in 1943 found herself in the jungles of Papua, New Guinea. This terrain was a nightmare as rain fell @ 300 inches a year. Disease thrived as Malaria, dysentery, typhus and other tropical illnesses awaited unwary soldiers in the jungle. Dehydration and malnourishment also added to her work load in the hot and moist jungle. Lorraine was later assigned to a field hospital in the Southern Philippines. Lorraine never married and provided medical care to patients when she was well into her 80s.
