This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Harry McCown (Mac)
to remember
Ellis, Howard (Doc), MSgt USAF(Ret).
If you knew or served with this Airman and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
My wife and I are in full retirement at our home in Moreno Valley, California. I quit high school in University City, Mo., and enlisted in the Army Air Force on Oct. 24, 1942 and served with the 1074th Signal Svc. Co. and then 877th Sig. Svc. Co., from 1943 in England to 1945 at Munchen-Gladbach, Germany. Subsequently I re-enlisted and served in the army communications center, Pentagon, for one year as civilian. Then, in 1946, I re-enlisted in regular army (1946-50)still at the Pentagon, and was TDY-ed to Eniwetok, Atoll, S. Pacific, for Operation Sandstone A-bomb testing, as cryptographer. Subsequently, was assigned to Hq. in West Berlin as editor of post newspaper, BERLIN OBSERVER. IN 1950, was Honorably Discharged from the Army and enlisted in USAF and was assigned to Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, as information tech and editor of post newspaper. Subsequent assignments, all as info tech and base paper editor, were at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, from 1955 to 1957, March AFB, California, 1957 to 1963; then Goose Air Base from 1963 to 1964, then to Castle AFB, Merced, Ca., to retirement in 1965. I met my wife in Berlin in 1949 during the blockade era and we were married in 1952. We have three sons and two daughters and six grandsons...sort of bonus for our military service. After military retirement in 1965 I was a reporter and columnist on a San Bernardino, Ca. newspaper, The Daily Sun-Telegram from which I retired in 1990. 'NUFF SAID.
Other Comments:
DURING WORLD WAR II, as mentioned earlier, I was assigned to the Army Air Force as a (SSgt) Cryptocenter NCOIC in the 1074th Signal Service Co. (commander Lt. Robert Scott Gruhn of Wilmette, Illinois)from Oct. '42 to Dec.'43, from Harding Field, Baton Rouge, La, to Windsor, England, 8th Air Force support command, 8th AF; I was then transferred to similar assignment to the 877th Signal Service Co., 9th AF (company commander Capt. William T. Wills of Cheyenne, Wyo., 16th TAD commander Maj. Joseph A. Plihal). I served with the 877th through Normandy (safe arrival in July '44), through Rheims-Courcy AAF station in France, to Munchen-Gladbach, Germany in April '45 where we remained to war's end. We were,in July '45, returned to France - Camp "20 Grand" at LaHavre, for transport home and then to Laredo Army Air Field, Texas, for processing into civilian life on Oct. 16, 1945...but of course I ended up re-enlisting...smartest decision of my life along with my original enlistment decision Oct. 24, 1942. AND, TODAY, OCT.28,'09, got a letter from - of all people - then 2d Lt. Bob Cross (now 94 years old and Lt. Col., USAF, retired) who was OIC of our communications section in the 877th...he was my boss...we'd found each other via internet several years ago and been in touch until few months ago and I thought I'd lost him and I was the 877th's "last man standing" but Bob reassures me I'm not alone 'though he's in an 'assisted' living home in Maine. He does advise me he's the last of the 877th's officers still standing and neither of us knows if any of my fellow "enlisted men" are still somewhere sharing our old age. I gotta tell, no B.S.involved, our 877th was one of the finest military units serving in the ETO in WW2 and I am grateful Bob Cross is still with us and grieve for those who aren't...they WERE my BROTHERS too.
Vietnam Advisory Campaign (1962-65)
From Month/Year
November / 1962
To Month/Year
March / 1965
Description November 15, 1961-March 1, 1965 .
On November 15, 1961, the 2d Advanced Echelon (2d ADVON) was activated in Saigon, capital of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The 2d ADVON, administratively part of the Thirteenth Air Force, controlled USAF units operating in Vietnam and reported to the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam. The 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron's FARM GATE detachment arrived on November 16. The FARM GATE, organization, although trained for counter insurgency combat, for about 2 months limited its mission to training Vietnamese aircrews and supporting with reconnaissance flights the operations of the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). Activation of the 2d ADVON and arrival of the FARM GATE detachment heralded the buildup of the United States Air Force presence in Vietnam.
Responding to the Republic of Vietnam's appeal in December 1961 for increased military aid to counter Communist (Viet Cong) insurgents, the United States gradually increased its forces. From January 2 to 5, 1962, for example, the USAF moved a tactical air control system to South Vietnam and landed equipment and personnel at Tan Son Nhut Air Base (AB) in Saigon; Bien Hoa AB, I5 miles north of Saigon; Da Nang AB, 375 miles northeast of Saigon; Pleiku AB, in the Central Highlands 230 miles northeast of Saigon; and Nha Trang AB, on the coast, a little less than 200 miles northeast of Saigon. Shortly afterwards, on January 7, a flight of C-l23s equipped for aerial spray missions arrived at Tan Son Nhut. Code-named RANCH HAND, this USAF detachment 3 days later began defoliation operations that continued for 9 years.
To manage U.S. forces in Vietnam, the Commander in Chief, Pacific Command, at the direction of President John F. Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, created Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) on February 8, 1962. Army Gen. Paul D. Harkins was named the first Commander of MACV. The 2d ADVON became the air component of the new command. A few months later, on October 8, the USAF activated the 2d Air Division, which replaced the 2d ADVON. In spite of increased U.S. aid, the Viet Cong insurgency grew, and the government of South Vietnam faced growing civil disorder. A year later, on November 1, 1963, a group of South Vietnamese military officers deposed President Ngo Dinh Diem in a coup détat, and not until June 1965 would the South Vietnamese establish a reasonably stable government. Meanwhile, on June 20, 1964, Anny Gen. William C. Westmoreland became Commander of MACV.
Communist insurgents also operated actively in Laos, and in May 1964 United States involvement in Southeast Asia expanded to include military aid to that country. On June 9, F-100s flying from Takhli Air Base, Thailand, about 110 miles north of Bangkok, made the first USAF strike in Laos. Air Force pilots bombed an antiaircraft installation at Xiangkhoang, on the Plain of Jars, about 100 miles northeast of Vientiane, the Laotian capital. In December 1964 the USAF launched an air interdiction campaign against the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of roads, trails, and waterways in the southern Laotian panhandle.
The nature of the conflict in Southeast Asia changed dramatically in late 1964. On August 2 and 4 torpedo boats from North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) attacked U.S. naval vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin- On the 5th, U.S. naval aircraft launched retaliatory air strikes against coastal targets in North Vietnam. That same day the USAF deployed B-57s to Bien Hoa AB and F-100s to Da Nang AB. Then in December 1964 the Viet Cong used conventional field rather than hit-and-run tactics to drive South Vietnamese forces temporarily from Binh Gia, near the coast, only 40 miles southeast of Saigon. For both North and South Vietnam governmental authorities this battle marked an escalation of the conflict. As the war rapidly intensified, on February 7, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered American dependents evacuated from South Vietnam. The same day the Viet Cong shelled Pleiku Air Base. In retaliation, the USAF conducted its first raid against North Vietnam on the 8th,
hitting a target just north of the 17th parallel.
