Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:58 | He chose the Air Corps before the draft could get him. After basic training, Lawrence Abel was a member of the ground crew on a fighter squadron. Taking their P-38's to the Aleutian Islands, they settled into an isolated makeshift base and began the effort to oust the Japanese from their small foothold.
Keywords : Lawrence Abel Tennessee maintenance fighter P-43 P-38 Aleutian Islands Alaska Anchorage Dutch Harbor Cold Bay
The Japanese had a presence on two Aleutian Islands and American units were pushing down the chain, ever closer to them. Ground crew member Lawrence Abel kept P-38's flying in the miserable weather. He describes the dangers faced by pilots in this unusual battleground of the war.
His job was to keep the planes flying, no matter what. Lawrence Abel describes the conditions at the isolated outpost in the Aleutian Islands. The weather was treacherous for aviation and crash landings were a constant worry. How primitive were the conditions way up there? He was still eating out of a mess kit two years after arriving in 1942.
A landing force was assembled, but when it got to the Aleutian island of Kiska, the Japanese had fled. They were on Attu, their last holdout in the isolated island chain. Lawrence Abel recalls a hectic convoy of ships ferrying American units closer to the action. Called home when his father took ill, he did not return and served the rest of the war at stateside air bases.
Lawrence Abel was called back into service for the Korean War. The Air Force maintenance technician kept the planes flying over the 38th Parallel, then he was selected for a secret unit based in Japan. He made a career of it and even took his family with him to his favorite post in England.
