Alva S. WHEATON

Bill Wheaton
576 Old Hickory Drive
Mount Carmel, TN 37645

[email protected]

 My name is William M. Wheaton (Bill), my father was Alva S. Wheaton (RA 20341537), hometown Darlington, Maryland. Dad was a member of the 503rd PIR/503rd RCT during WWII, and was with the 3rd BN, I Co. I'm looking for people who knew Dad during those years and got your e-mail addresses from Mr. Don Abbott. I hope to discover more about the young man who was to later become my father, and the experiences that helped mould him into the man he was.

For some reason that I can not explain in early February of this year I developed a very strong need to learn all I can about Dad's WWII experiences. After the war Dad spent a few years as a civilian going to school, he rejoined the Army and served for over 28 years retiring, in 1971 or 72, as an EOD Master Sergeant. Dad died in December 16, 1987,  and Mom joined him in April of 1996. Unfortunately I never made a point of exploring this history while Dad was alive. When Dad did talk about WWII, which was not very often, I was too young to understand much about it, and likely did not pay very good attention as I now only have vague memories of any of it. Dad's Asia/Pacific Campaign Ribbon carried three stars and an arrowhead, and from what little I've learned, I think he was with the unit from early on and all the way through WWII.

In this pursuit I discovered the 503rd web site maintained by Paul Whitman which has been very useful in this journey of discovery. (Paul has been very helpful in our e-mail correspondence with putting me on the track to learning more about Corregidor).

I have learned a lot about the 503rd in the last 1 1/2 months, but still have much more to learn. I have acquired books by Belote, Breuer, Flanagan, and Devlin that are helping to give me a better understanding. But I really want to learn more not only about the Corregidor mission, but about the experiences of the 503rd in Australia and New Guinea during WWII.

I had the honor of meeting Mr. Ray Mitchell here in Kingsport Tennessee about four years ago, he had lent me a book, that I can not remember the title of, and shared a copy of the static line with me. I shared what few things I have left of Dad's with him. It was shortly before a 503rd Convention, and he really wanted to borrow the Corregidor map that Dad carried and the Japanese flag that was Dad's, but at the time I just was not willing to let them out of my hands. Meeting Ray Mitchell sparked an interest in learning more, but I failed to follow through at that time. I was sorry to learn from the web site of the death of Mr. Mitchell. He truly loved the 503rd and his relationship with the unit. The only things I have left of Dad's is a color copy of the map (in a moment of weakness I let my youngest sister keep the original, as the baby of the family she was closest to Dad), the Japanese flag (I have been told it is a prayer flag, it's covered with Japanese writing), his Bible, a Soldiers and Sailors prayer book, his Purple Heart from Corregidor, Bronze Star, and some assorted old ribbons (left overs from when he replaced with new ones) His CIB and wings along with his full rack of ribbons were buried with him. I'm trying to rebuild all that now for a display case. He also had a sword at one time but that disappeared in one of their last moves. I know there had to be photos and more, but don't know what ever happened to them.

I have provided a color copy of the map and Dad's diary from the back of it to Paul Whitman for possible use on the web site, and I am working on having it scanned to a CD for Paul the next time I get home to Maryland so he can work with it. The diary started on February 16th and ended on the 20th, I don't know why Dad stopped writing at that time, his Purple Heart indicates he was wounded on the 16th, but he say's nothing about it in the diary. I've attached a copy of the diary, at least as I translated Dad's writing, to this e-mail. I am 50 years old myself now, and have finally awoken to the fact that many of the WWII generation are no longer with us, and in many cases the history of their actions, that helped to give us the freedom we enjoy today, have been lost with them. I hope to help preserve that history by passing it along to my son, and by doing what ever I can to help keep the WWII history of the 503rd alive.

I'm asking for your assistance on this voyage of discovery. Any information, stories, recommended book list, or anything else you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Most Respectfully,

Sounds as if your dad must have done the whole bit from Fort Benning to Fort Bragg to Camp Stoneman to Australia, to Papua, to Australia, back to Papua, on to Hollandia, to Noemfoor, to Leyte, to Mindoro to Corregidor back to Mindoro and lastly for WW II to Negros. And that is just for WWII.

Your dad also had some of the coveted bits of ribbons and hardware. Two items, alone, were quite rare. He would have had a Combat Infantry Badge with two stars on it. He would have had wings with three combat stars. These are things that had to be earned. There probably is not a single general officer who has either of these items.

The three stars for the SW Pacific Ribbon indicate the campaigns he was in. I think they were Papua (Australian New Guinea), Dutch New Guinea (Hollandia and Noemfoor) and the Philippine Campaign. The Arrow Head represented an invasion (Nadzab). We did not get one for Mindoro, believe it or not.