After receiving his draft notice on March 5, 1941, 21-year old Alex Kunevicius harbored dreams of joining George Patton’s First Armored Division. Instead, he was placed in a noncombat Army Ordnance Company and taught to repair weapons, an assignment in which he initially saw little glory. After Pearl Harbor, however, he and his fellow technicians proved indispensable by keeping American guns firing during the invasion of island after island in the South Pacific. In this memoir, Kunevicius recounts his experiences as an ordnance man, from the ocean voyage to the Pacific Theater to years fighting heat and disease as his unit provided critical maintenance for assaults on Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands, and other targets while withstanding endless air raids and shelling. His recollections offer a vivid portrait of life behind the lines and reveal the enormous value of support positions to the war effort.

Alex Kunevicius, a retired inventor and businessman, lives in Independence, Ohio.

Alex Kunevicius
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 207
Bibliographic Info: 36 photos, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6446-3
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8620-5
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1

1. A Letter from the President: Fort Knox, Kentucky      3
2. December 7, 1941: Trip to the Sea      9
3. Australia      31
4. New Caledonia      37
5. St. Joseph’s Cathedral      56
6. Company on the Move      65
7. Guadalcanal      74
8. Lieutenant Ben Rabin and Men Arrive      96
9. Christmas Day      109
10. A Hand Grenade That Flies      130
11. Company Split Up      139
12. Sasavele Island First, Then New Georgia      150
13. Kolambangara      158
14. New Caledonia Again      166
15. I See Land      176

Index      195