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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

Born March 10, 1924, enlisted December 2, 1942 USAAF 12192383 Pacific Theatre of Operation as a radio operator honorably discharged January 11, 1946.
Honoree’s achievement and involvement as per the following regarding P.O.W. messages:
5th A.A.C.S., 380th Bomb Group, Fenton Field, NT, Darwin, Australia
“Being a support group assigned to the 380th Bomb Group with the functions of communications, control tower operations, weather station, range finder, homing range, etc. all functions necessary for the B24s to get into the air and on their way with favorable conditions for a successful bombing mission. Having had easy access to the radio shack, I would scan for broadcasts from all over the world. The broadcasts that really intrigued me were the ones from Tokyo Rose in Tokyo and Helen and Betty from radio Jakarta. They were the enemy demoralizing propaganda DJs who supervised the Sunday one hour broadcasts of permitting the prisoners of war to broadcast messages over the air to their loved ones.
I began to wonder whether these P.O.W. messages were in any way being intercepted and whether somehow they were being conveyed to their families. I decided to miss Mass on Sundays and go down to the radio shack; tune in two receivers to ensure that I would get the complete message in the event of a receiver fading out.
It is here that I believe that speed writing was invented as I had to use short cut words and abbreviations in order for me to put down on paper everything that was broadcasted in each message such as name, rank, serial number, home address, names of loved ones and other incidentals.
Being in the bush country, stationery was lacking but the Red Cross was kind enough to supply me with boxes of envelopes and writing paper which I used to compose and type a letter from all the info I had written down. I intercepted about 1000 P.O.W. messages but only was able to type up about 500. At the very beginning, the censor at the APO tried to stop these letters from going out, but an officer interceded in my behalf as there wasn’t anything in the rules and regulations to prevent these letters from being mailed.
I had received about 65 replies thanking me from the bottom of their hearts, as in most cases, my letter was the only positive news in two years that their loved one was alive after receiving a missing in action letter or telegram. I received letters from Australia, Canada, Burma, India, England and the United States. These letters were indescribable classics as their appreciative elation was put in writing which came from the heart and it made me feel good that I had contributed a little extra to the war effort.
One day I was scanning on the receiver and I picked up a broadcast from San Francisco, where it stated that a high school had undertaken a project to intercept these P.O.W. messages. I felt a sigh of relief and prayed to God that they had become involved earlier enough to have intercepted some of the 500 messages I did not type and forward.
After 55 years, I keep thinking of how these P.O.W.s have adjusted in and on troubled water flowing under the bridge of life with their pain and suffering, but I believe that their faith in God, they have weathered the storm.”
Certified to be true
Michael J. Chmieloski