This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Shannon, Joseph Lewis, Lt Col USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Coal Valley, Alabama
Last Address Birmingham, Alabama
Date of Passing Jan 05, 2010
Location of Interment Elmwood Cemetery - Birmingham, Alabama
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
He flew 70 combat missions in the Mediterranean Theater and another 32 combat missions in the China-Burma-India Theater during WWII and was credited with damaging 1 enemy aircraft in aerial combat and destroying 3 more on the ground. He also flew in the Bay of Pigs invasion operation in Cuba in Apr 1961.
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.
