Military History of Frank Flew

Military History of
Frank Thomas Flew
and the
The 177^th Ordnance Depot Company

27 Nov 1942 – Frank Thomas Flew reported for enlistment in the U. S. Army at Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia.

1 Apr 1942 – The 177^th Ordnance Depot Company was organized at Camp Chaffee, AR, with cadre furnished by the 347^th Ordnance Motor Transport Company with the assignment of Lt. Raymond G. Roy of the 347^th.

6 Dec 1942 – Frank leaves for active duty following furlough granted upon induction.

5 Apr 1943 – The 177^th was subsequently activated at Camp Chaffee and attached to the 14^th Armored Division.

16 Jul 1943 – The 177^th was reassigned to the Third Army.

21 Jul 1943 – Reorganized per AG 320.2 Ord GNMCC-5, HQ Third Army

21 Oct 1943 – To be transferred to Camp Shelby, MS, per 370.5/283 (Ord) (R)

3 Nov 1943 – To be attached to 338^th Ordnance Battalion effective upon arrival at Camp Shelby (R)

2 Nov 1943 – Departed Camp Chaffee

3 Nov 1943 – Arrived Camp Shelby, MS

16 Dec 1943 – To be transferred to SFPE (San Francisco Port of Embarkation) (for further movement by water transportation)

2 Jan 1944 – Departed Camp Shelby, MS per radio from Classified Message Center, Ft. Sam Houston, TX

6 Jan 1944 – Arrived Camp Stoneman, CA, per letter Hq SFPE, Ft Mason CA.

9 Jan 1944 – Departed SFPS aboard “Republic” (SF-1671),

16 Jan 1944 – Arrived Hawaii per Water Transportation Report dated 29 Jan 1944.

1 Mar 1944 – Assigned to the 3^rd Ordnance Battalion at APO 456 per Section IV, GO #63, Hqs USA Forces, Central Pacific Area.

19, 29 Sep, 2 Oct 1944 – Left Oahu in three echelons bound for Dulag, Leyte, Philippines. T/4 Frank Frank (right) on the streets of Honolulu

31 Dec 1944 – Stationed Leyte, Philippines, USAF, POA.

20 Feb 1945 – Relieved from assignment to POA and assigned to the SWPA per CN-IN-19728 from USF in the FE

25 Mar 1945 – Moved from Dulag to Palo, Leyte, Philippines.

31 Jan 1945 – Stationed Luzon, Philippines Islands, per Station List, POA

8 Mar 1945 – Leyte, Philippines Islands, per Section II 86th Edition, SWPA, Station List, USAFFE.

18 Jan 1946 – Ordered inactivated by the CINCAFPAC at the earliest practicable date

10 Feb 1946 – Inactivated at Leyte, Philippine Islands, per radio CINCAFPAC, MC-IF-67110

6 Aug 1945 - The 177^th Ordnance Depot Company is entitled to battle credit for participation in the SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES CAMPAIGN per CO #97 USAFPAC.

1 Nov 1945 – Records of this unit shipped to Organization Records Br., AGO, RAO, St. Louis, Mo.

6 Nov 1945 – The Jackson Sun reports the return of Tech/4 Frank T. Flew from service in the Pacific.

(12 Jul 1973 – The 177^th Ordnance Depot Company personnel records, along with 16-18 million official personnel files were destroyed in a devastating fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.)

The USS Republic
Christened the U. S. Navy ship USS President Grant on 2 Aug 1917, she served in WWI as a troop transport. She made sixteen trips between New York and ports in France transporting over 77,000 troops. The President Grant was transferred to the U. S. Army on 6 Oct 1919 where she was re-christened the U. S. Army Transport Republic. USS Republic (AP-33) in 1942

In 1931, she plied the Pacific making trips from San Francisco to Hawaii, Manila, China and Japan and in 1932 she made regular trips from New York to Honolulu.

In July of 1941, the Navy once again took charge of the Republic and, after delivering troops to Iceland, she sailed for San Francisco. On 21 Nov 1941 she left San Francisco for the Philippines by way of Hawaii with 2,666 troops and 18 civilians. She left Honolulu on 29 Nov, 1941, joining six other ships as a convoy to Manila.

Officers, troops and nurses arrive at Pearl Harbor

Officers, troops and nurses arrive at Pearl Harbor

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec, 1941, the convoy was ordered to proceed to Brisbane, Australia, where the troops in the convoy became designated as the United States Forces in Australia (USFIA). After debarking the troops, the Republic returned to San Francisco via Sydney where she spent the remainder of the war transporting troops (including the 177^th) and supplies to Honolulu and the South Pacific.

The Republic returned home in early 1945 and was decommissioned in New Orleans in Jan 1945. She was transferred back to the Army for conversion to a hospital ship to be designated USAHS Republic. However, in Sep 1945, her designation as a hospital ship was canceled and she was once again given the designation USAT Republic. She embarked war veterans at Tacloban and Leyte, bringing them home to San Francisco in Mar 1946. (It’s quite possible that the same ship that took the 177^th to the South Pacific returned them to the States.)

In May, 1949, she was decommissioned from the Army and returned to the Maritime Commission. On 11 Mar of 1952 she met her final fate as did many a venerable ship when she was sold for scrap to the Bethlehem Steel Company.

Dad, like many of the WWII vets prior to the release of “Saving Private Ryan”, did not talk about his role in the war. We knew two things about his military career - he served in the Philippines and he played golf in Honolulu. Well, the golf thing was not really military but he always said that he had played golf in Hawaii with a smile on his face.

Eventually I made inquiry to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, the repository for all military records. I found, to my chagrin, that a fire in 1973 had destroyed 16-18 million records, including Dad’s. Pop passed on in 1980 and with him went our last source of information. I remember a group picture of his unit posing in front of a barracks building. I can see him with his jug ears on the left side of the second row. (Or perhaps it was on the right side of the back row.) And below the group was written their unit designation. In my mind I can almost read the words.

The Jackson Sun<br>06 Nov 1945

With Dad and the records gone and without the picture, it seemed improbable that his unit would ever be known. Then one day while doing some Ancestry research, I was led to a newspaper article in The Jackson Sun dated 06 Nov 1945. And there between the ads for the Return Engagement of Frankey Zeibold and His Orchestra and Belle-Camp Chocolates was an article on seven Jackson natives that were “… On [the] Way Home”. The second man returning read as follows:

Tech-4 Frank T Flew, 204 S. Hays St., is returning from Leyte after 22 months in the Pacific. He served with the 177^th Ordnance Depot Company in the Philippines which was awarded the Meritorious Service Award. He also wears the Philippine Liberation ribbon with one campaign star, and the Asiatic-Pacific ribbon.”

There it was - the 177^th Ordnance Depot Company. Now it would be as simple as Googling the unit and all would be revealed…weeell, not quite. It took some time to verify that the 177^th even existed. After all, a company is a small unit, typically a couple of hundred men made up of a half dozen platoons. And to complicate the process, the U. S. Army had seen fit to create a 177^th Ordnance Battalion which served in the European Theater. I finally found a reference to it in the records of the 347^th Ordnance Motor Transport Company. This gave me a glimmer of hope.

After much digging, I was finally able to resurrect an obscure pdf document entitled “177th_Ordnance_Depot_Company__Unit_Historical_ Data_Card__TAGO_File__Reel_71__USAHEC”. This document is the basis for the History presented hereafter.