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Service Details |
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Last Rank
Master Sergeant
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Last Primary AFSC/MOS
72170-Information Technician
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Last AFSC Group
Media Services
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Primary Unit
1957-1963, 72170, 15th Air Force
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Service Years
1942 - 1965
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Personal Details
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Home Country
United States | |
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Year of Birth
1925 |
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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.
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Contact Info
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Home Town
New York City, N.Y. |
Last Address
Moreno Valley, Ca
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Date of Passing
Jan 25, 2017 |
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Last Known Activity:
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.
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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.
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1942-1943, AAF MOS 542, 1074th Signal Support Company, VIII Air Support Command
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1943-1945, AAF MOS 542, 877th Signal Service Company, 16th Air Depot Group
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1943-1945, AAF MOS 542, Ninth Air Force
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1946-1947, AAF MOS 542, Air Force Pentagon Communications Agency
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1950-1953, 72170, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
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1957-1963, 72170, 15th Air Force
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Reflections on MSgt Ellis's
US Air Force Service
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TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, WHAT INFLUENCED HIS/HER DECISION TO JOIN THE AIR FORCE?
I enlisted in the Army Air Force on Oct. 24, 1942 - 10 months after Pearl Harbor - at the age of 17 - because our country was at war and I was ashamed to be safe at home while other "kids" from my school were already risking their lives in World War II. However, I was under-age and my mom, a widow, wouldn't sign my enlistment papers which she called a "death warrant." So I got a job as a stock boy at a men's store in downtown St. Louis, where I persuaded a floor manager to sign my enlistment papers as my "guardian." He already had a son and nephew in the military and understood my plight even though he told me he felt guilty.
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TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH HE/SHE TOOK IN HIS/HER MILITARY SERVICE. WHERE DID THEY GO FOR BASIC TRAINING AND WHAT UNITS, BASES OR SQUADRONS WERE THEY ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS HIS/HER REASON FOR LEAVING?
My career path was an odd and winding road. I served as a cryptographer stateside and in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) first in the 1074th Signal Service Co., Stateside and overseas. In late 1943 I was transferred to Major Joseph A. Plihal's 877th Signal Service Co., 16th Air Depot Group in England, France and Germany. I never knew his hometown, but heard that Major Plihal had played with the "the Green Bay Packers" in his youth. When the ETO war ended we were stationed at a base near Moenchengladbach, Germany, and from there shipped home (via Boston) for 30- day furlough prior to then being shipped "to the Pacific" to serve in the war there which ended while I was on the leave. Actually, after visiting my mom and family back in University City, I hurried to New York City to visit my grandparents. I was having lunch with my Aunt in a restaurant on Broadway, across from the old Times Building with a rotating news sign, when it suddenly read, "JAPAN HAS AGREED TO AN UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, PRESIDENT TRUMAN JUST ANNOUNCED." My Aunt went to the bar and bought me a bottle of "Southern Comfort" whiskey and sent me down to the Broadway mania. It was V-J Day and I fell in with the crowd and got deliriously "happy" when I saw this crying old lady holler out - "THE DAMN WAR IS OVER...AINT NOBODY GOING TO DIE ANYMORE!" The 877th was deactivated at Laredo Army Air Field, Texas, and I was honorably discharged as a 20-year-old Staff Sgt on Oct. 16, 1945. I went home to University City where I first got a job as a "package-liquor" salesman in a downtown St. Louis tavern, then as a mailroom assistant at the General Foods Corporation sales-division office. But I couldn't forget the "good old days" of camaraderie and purpose I'd experienced in wartime uniform. So I re-enlisted and was assigned as a cryptographer in the Department of the Army Signal Center at the Pentagon. From there I was assigned TDY to an Army communications center during the "Operation Sandstone" Atom Bomb testing on Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific. After returning to South Post Ft. Meyers, Va., as a Pentagon Signal Corps Sergeant, I was assigned to the Army HQ in West Berlin, Germany where my career took a great turn. For the command, and my security level, it was tough for the Army to have me doing what I did next; I got engaged to a German woman whose father had been an SS LtCol. My would-have-been father in law had died and so I asked the Army interviewer, "Did you ever kiss a top secret clearance?" He caved-in and let me stay in Berlin with my "Fraulein" but I was re-assigned as a staff writer/columnist on the post newspaper, "The Berlin Observer." After that I rotated home and got a civilian job which I quit to re-enlist, but this time in the Air Force. It led to a lot of new places for my wife and I and, eventually, our five kids. I've been assigned to several State-side bases since then and a tour in the Alaskan Air Command, the Strategic Air Command's old Goose AFB at Happy Valley, Labrador, where I also did a turn as base television NCO and newscaster as well as editor of "The Goose Gab" base newspaper. My last base was Castle AFB, California, where I retired as a Master Sergeant in 1965.
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IF HE/SHE PARTICIPATED IN ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS, INCLUDING COMBAT, HUMANITARIAN AND PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, PLEASE DESCRIBE THOSE YOU FEEL WERE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TO HIM/HER AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY.
No, and it has embarrassed me for years, especially when I'm gabbing with a group of other Veterans and they're detailing their combat experience from WW2 to the present. During the German efforts to defeat us in the "BULGE" in Belgium in late December '45, I volunteered for "front line" but my commander held me back - he said I had too many crypto formulas locked in my head, "And if the Krauts get a hold of you, you might sing like a bird..."
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FROM THEIR ENTIRE MILITARY SERVICE, DESCRIBE ANY PERSONAL MEMORIES, YOU MAY BE AWARE OF, WHICH IMPACTED HIM/HER THE MOST.
I guess it wasn't a "warlike" memory in particular - it was a human experience. Serving with and existing with men and women of all beliefs from all over America had a tremendous impact on me. I always remember them all and how they moulded me from a narrowed intellect, naive and green high school dropout into a worthwhile Soldier and Non-commissioned Officer. That memorable experience made this Soldier/Airman NCO evolve into a mature adult capable of good-citizenship, and a good husband and father (or so I'm told).
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IF KNOWN, PLEASE LIST ANY INDIVIDUAL(S) FROM HIS/HER TIME IN THE MILITARY WHO STOOD OUT AS HAVING THE MOST POSITIVE IMPACT ON THEM AND WHY?
I have to say it was my OIC when I was a 19 year old Staff Sergeant in charge of an overseas code room in France and Germany during WW2. I don't doubt I earned my stripes and the supervisor status but the others in the outfit did have difficulty taking "orders" from a teen-age snot-nose. But our Communications Officer, 2nd Lt. Bob Cross (now retired LTC and still "with us") got a hold of me and made a lot of good personal and management suggestions which I followed and it worked. He used "suggestions" on me and so I quit "giving orders" per se and modified our duties and needs with "suggestions" that "this or that" might work out better etc., and seeking to incorporate their opinions. After all, we were support troops not in "snap judgment" combat. It may not make sense to the military reader but it did to me and "my troops" became "our troops." As a matter of fact I used Bob Cross's management "techniques" throughout the rest of my military and civilian careers - and occasionally in family life trying to hassle with my gang of kids.
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IF HE/SHE SURVIVED MILITARY SERVICE, WHAT PROFESSION(S) DID HE/SHE FOLLOW AFTER DISCHARGE?
I retired at Castle AFB, Merced, CA on Feb. 1, 1965, and a month later went to work as a reporter for the San Bernardino, CA SUN-TELEGRAM newspaper. I worked there as a reporter, columnist, copy editor and night city editor until my second retirement on Feb. 1, 1990, exactly 25 years after the Air Force retirement. Now I just have time with my family including the TWS family, meet with veteran chums at a local donut shop and once in a rarity have time for travel or civic activities or just goofing off. It's a good life.
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IF HE/SHE SURVIVED MILITARY SERVICE, IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU BELIEVE HIS/HER SERVING IN THE MILITARY INFLUENCED THE WAY THEY APPROACHED THEIR PERSONAL LIFE, FAMILY LIFE AND CAREER?
As I indicated earlier, in plain words it made a boy into a soldier and a soldier into a man. I learned to endure hardships without fear; I learned how to deal/cope with every type of individual in private and professional life. Most of all, I believe, it made me into a better American citizen because in my own way and in my own time it was the country "bringing me up" not just fending for myself loosely and perhaps foolishly.
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HOW EFFECTIVE HAS TOGETHERWESERVED.COM BEEN IN HELPING YOU RECORD YOUR REMEMBERED PERSONS MILITARY SERVICE? DO YOU HAVE ANY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE?
That's a damn good question. I "enlisted" in TWS less than a year ago and already I've felt at home with Veterans from all areas of the military and when I walked into the place, so to speak, I didn't even feel like a stranger. Case in point...when I had difficulty (I still do) as a newcomer dealing with "things to do" ranging from transmitting photos to gathering information there were so many great folks quickly responding with guidance and assurance. And when I'm writing of my military experiences or responding to others...there's a crowd of "joiners" who bring even more enlightenment and viewpoints into my membership...I really feel like "Family" on Togetherweserved.
Published in TWS "Voices" February 1, 2010
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