This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt John Beier (Guns)
to remember
Beier, Alvin, TSgt.
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.
Contact Info
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
My father was drafted in 1942, he spent only one week in basic training and was shipped out to Brisbane then Eagle Farms in Australia as an aircraft. sheet metal worker. He had prior experience in private industry. Prior to WWII he worked for Douglas Aircraft and had worked on the XB-19 bomber. During WWII he was at Eagle Farms and modified the 1st B-25 to carry a 75mm cannon. He also flew 4 missions with Col. Pappy Gunn. From Australia he went to Port Morsby, then to the Phillipines. He ended the war at Nichols Air Field outside of Manila.During WWII my father was assigned to the 81st Depot Repair Squadron, part of the 81st Air Depot Group
After WWII he went to work for Trans Ocean airlines in Oakland California, then for Lockheed Missle and Space in Sunnyvale California. While at Lockheed he built the capsules that were used on the Mercury and Gemani space programs. His last project at Lockheed before his retirement was to build the prototype boom that is being used on the space shuttle.
He is burried at the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery.
World War II/Asian-Pacific Theater
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
21 Named Campaigns were recognized in the Asiatic Pacific Theater with Battle Streamers and Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medals.
