Pacific Signal Unit Supporting Air Combat Missions

Hi all:

I'm trying to track down information on my grandfather's PTO unit. Based on interviews another family member conducted before he passed away in 2014, here are the details we were able to get from him:

• Arrived in theater late December 1943
• Islands visited were (in rough chronological order): New Caledonia, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, New Guinea (Finschaven, Hollandia), Admiralty Islands, Biak, Noemfoor, Morotai, Philippines, Saipan, Okinawa, I.E. Shima
• Campaign credit for Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Southern Philippines, Ryukus
• "in the Signal Corps"
• "set up radio communications between these islands and worked with Air Force and their air planes on combat missions"
  
• "originally in a much smaller communications unit that hopped between those first islands listed to put up communications. This was done in conjunction with the Air Force"
• "set up small buildings or sheds on the islands. He set them up as though took over the island."
• "did not work with Navy, worked with Air Force so they could bomb where necessary so they could take over island."
• "were responsible for giving Air Force coordinates for bombing and gave them info on weather conditions etc."

Obviously, I could never figure out the exact unit from those sketchy details. And even though I was able to find a master copy of the campaign credits for all Army units, and no single unit matches the exact four that he received.

But I am curious if anyone knows what TYPE of unit I should be looking for. Does this sound like a JASCO? Is it some sort of aviation signal company? It sounds like he did a combination of construction and operations, which I can't make heads or tails of.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Bill

 

What was his name? Do you have his separation papers to post? We have some wizards on here. Lol

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I do have the discharge docs - attached here. I've also worked closely with Geoff from Golden Arrow Research over the years (who has been great), but am appealing to another set of experts here because I'm at brick wall (again). His discharge documents list his last unit - 106th Regiment 2nd Battalion HQS Company. The morning reports can trace him back to summer of 1945 in that unit, but then the trail goes cold because the earliest morning report he appears in lists him as:

"Asgd & jd fr Hq 2nd Bn 106 Inf EDCMR 28 Jul 45 MCO unknown Race White per para 2 SO #7 Hq 2nd Bn 106 Inf"

I couldn't make sense of this transfer from the same unit, and that's where the trail went cold. Before that, all I have to go on is his island list, his campaign credits, and those snippets of interview clues.

-Bill

 

Good morning! Hopefully some one will help shortly. I'm out the door in a few. I'll check back when I have more time.

 

My sister and I both ordered my dads records at about the same time. She got several more pages than I did. If that's the only page you got it might be worth looking around to see if you can request more.

 

Just a shot in the dark...

Have you looked into the various Army Airways Communication System (AACS) units?
ARMY AIRWAYS COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM UNITS

Forgot to add:
http://ibrarian.net/navon/paper/AACS__ACS_B_AFCS___AFCC.pdf?paperid=758607

Some discussion here:
Trying to figure out my Grandpa's WWII Unit history - Stupid 1973 fire!

 

Thanks, I'll check those out and look into the possibility of additional paperwork.

Another clue I forgot to include was that his earlier service was labeled part of an "Air Task Force". Obviously, there were multiple TFs operating over the course of the SWP campaigns, but I thought that was interesting as well.

The AACS, as you mention Takao, is something I looked into before but dismissed because I (incorrectly) thought that was mostly Stateside. But the description seems to align well with the snippets of what my grandfather said about communicating coordinates and weather information....definitely promising.