Craig Carmichael  Winter address: 6175 N. Hogahn Avenue, Paradise Valley, AZ 85253-3955, (602) 553-1935, Summer address: 2748 Hyatts Road, Powell, OH 43065, (740) 369-3505, Email: craiglou@aol.com

I was a Navy radioman who landed behind the 4th Division Marines on the morning of Feb. 3, 1944 after Roi was secured.  I was part of a 40 man mobile radar team who set up our gear on Roi to warn of all approaching aircraft until the larger permanent radars of Argus 21 were set up about a week to 10 days later, since they arrived on a different ship than the advance radar team.  Our team's equipment consisted of 4 mobile units: 1 radar van, 1 radio van, 1 generator van, and a smaller open-topped trailer with an auxiliary generator just in case. On 3 Feb. 1944 - 1000 hours, we were offloaded from the brand new 10,000 ton, AKA 61, U.S.C.G.S. Aquarius into four LCVP's and pulled ashore by tracked diesel tractors on the south beach of Roi, then hauled off the beach up to the edge of the airstrip.  We were immediately greeted by the grisly sights and smells of war's devastation.  Lying where they fell were hundreds of Japanese corpses strewn over the two hundred acres of the former Jap airfield with its figure 4 landing strips.  After lying for two days in the hot tropic sun the stench of the corpses, along with the smell of cordite and the acrid smell of smoke from burned buildings and rotting vegetation, all intermingled in a cloying mantle of sweet and sour foulness of odors difficult to describe unless you've experienced it for yourself.  After waiting for an hour in the blazing sun amidst the foul stench of the corpses on every side, we were finally hauled about 300 yards farther inland to a position about the center of the island.  There we set up the equipment and were operating within a few hours.  Around noon the next day we picked up enemy surveillance aircraft at the extreme range of the radar and tracked him in to five or 10 miles.  It became a regular daily occurrence at about noon and continued until the night of 12 Feb. 0200 hours when 10 to 12 Jap Mavis flying boats from Truk, staged through Ponape, hit us on a clear night in the light of a full moon, so bright you could read newsprint.  In a matter of 15 minutes from the wail of the warning sirens, the deadly shish-shish-shish of the first bombs plummeted to earth and slammed with a thud into the coral island.  In a millisecond a hurricane blast erupted with a thunderclap of such force it lifted me up and slammed me down again like the blow from a giant fist.  That first horrendous blast came from a direct hit on the big bomb dump at the south edge of the Marine and Seabees bivouac area, where most of the 38 KIA and the 675 WIA were suffered.  The explosion of the other bombs and incendiaries dropped were lost in that first big blast, but in a matter of only a very few minutes the entire supply dump of 20 to 30 acres was set ablaze in a wall of flame that leaped upward hundreds of feet into the moonlit night, and fed by winds from the periphery, vented upward through a cumulous cloud strata at the ten thousand foot level then continued upward until it was twisted to the southeast by higher wind streams in a long black plume that stretched for miles.  All this and many more stories are contained in several articles written for the Roi-Namur News, published several times annually since 1998.  If you wish to be added to the mailing list, send me (craiglou@aol.com) your mailing address.  We don't solicit dues or fees, which are contributed on a purely voluntary basis, by our members who receive the R.N. News simply because it helps keep us in touch with each other in between our bi-annual reunions.  Members write me and I publish their letters and answers, if applicable, as a clearing house for the information of other members, who have in common the fact we all served at some time on Roi-Namur in the Kwajalein Atoll, although, there are an increasing number of veterans who simply like to read its contents, which may contain various accounts by veterans from other services.  As a guide to your free will, voluntary contribution for printing and postage, I offer only that the average cost of printing and postage is approx. $2 per edition, and I never solicit money from anyone, except to remind members about once a year to write for the purpose of letting us know the status of your health and address changes, if any.  I answer every letter sent to me as expeditiously as possible, and publish its contents, sometimes compressed or edited for brevity or clarity, if necessary.  Sincerely, Craig Carmichael, Editor, Roi-Namur News.

An email message forwarded to Dave F. Twyman from Craig:

Dave F. Twyman:  I'm addressing your message to the above men who may be able to help you with info about your father-in-law, Jack W. Blatchford, an F4U Corsair mechanic with VMF 311 on Roi-Namur.  I don't have a website at present but will have one sometime in the near future. Nor do I have info concerning JWB but I do have several stories and personal accounts of men who served on Roi-Namur during that period.  Jim and Sue Galchick (jimsue@raex.com) publishes the 311 Fighting Tomcats Newsletter and probably have a roster of 311 personnel, as does Ted (Marcel) Theriault (Ted34446). Bill Prodouz (vmf311sf@aol.com) and Roy Rice (jazzyrice@aol.com) were both ground crewmen in VMF311 during the same period JWB served in 311 and probably knew him.  In addition George W. Diemer III (diemergp@comcast.net), a nephew of Lt. George W. Diemer, Jr. a 311 pilot who was drowned when his plane crashed landed in the shallow water on the reef at high tide after takeoff on Roi airstrip May 26, 1944, has a website with info and photos of VMF311 personnel.  I was a Navy radioman 2/C but had some contact with Marines most of my time on Roi-Namur. I'll send you a collection of stories from previous editions of the Roi-Namur News you requested and a recent edition. I hope you're able to find the information you're seeking.  I'll contact you by phone soon to learn more about your service as an A7 pilot.  Have you read James Bradley's book:  Fly Boys!  James B. is the author of Iwo Jima and son of John Bradley, one of the Iwo Jima flag raisers. A must read for all Navy carrier pilots.  I'll call you soon.
 
Thank you for your service to our country!    Craig Carmichael   

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