textmasonjackh1940.html

North High School Wall of Honor
Jack H. Mason
Class of June, 1940

Research done by Claradell Shedd, Class of 1953.

Jack H. Mason

Jack graduated in the June, 1940 North High class. Following Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps in Des Moines, IA. His service number was 457347. Jack's next of kin was listed as Mr. and Mrs. John H. Mason, 3808 5th Avenue, Des Moines, IA.

		Correct photo coming. Photo is for Bob Gates and other 1949 North High classmates. Photo at left is Bob's graduating class from boot training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA on 10 September 1949. Bob is in the third row from the bottom, the seventh person in from the left hand side.
Click on photo to view enlarged version

Jack H. Mason

Year		Rank		Status

June, 1940		Graduated		Graduated from North High School, Des Moines, IA.
June, 1940- September, 1942	x	Employment	x	Western Electric Company
September 21 , 1942	x	US Marine Corps	x	Enlisted in Des Moines, IA.
September, 1942	x	Basic Training	x	Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, CA
October, 1942	x	Training/12 weeks	x	Attended service school as Radio Operator (45-Comm-MCB-SD)
				Enter correct information below for Jack H. Mason
October, 1949	x	Home on Leave/Pvt	x	Home on leave from boot camp at MCRD, San Diego. Photo (shown below) taken at Des Moines Airport before returning to San Diego, CA for additional training.
October, 1949	x	Training	x	San Diego, CA; Advanced infantry training preparing for deployment to Korea
January, 1950	x	Training	x	Alameda Naval Air Station, Alameda, CA. Served as sentry guard. Port Chicago, Suisun Bay, CA
July, 1950	x	Training	x	Co H 3Rd Bn 7Th Mar 1Stmar Div, Mri Pearl; Mb Ntc Great Lakes Illinois Glak6105
October, 1950 to January, 1951	x	Training Finished	x	One-year training completed at Great Lakes. Then in Reserves. Back to Des Moines, IA to await possible recall to active service.
January, 1951	x	Training	x	*Recall to active service. Camp Pendleton, CA; 1st Infantry Training Battalion Training And 6th Replacement Command Marine Barracks Camp J H Pendleton; Oceanside, California
February 14, 1951	x	Enroute	x	**Transport from San Diego to Kobe, Japan via USS General George M. Randall took 26 days. Assigned to H Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Division Fleet Marine Force. From Kobe, took ship to Pusan, Korea. From Pusan, Korea, one-day train ride. Trucked. Then walked to area with pup tents. We were there!
March 1, 1951	x	Embarked	x	Embarked from Kobe, Japan for Korea.
March 5, 1951	x	Arrived Korea	x	Arrived Pusan, Korea. One-day train ride; then trucked to front lines.
March 15, 1952	x	Enroute	x	****Survivors of the 6th Replacement Draft leaves Korea via East Coast Village Solscho-Ri aboard the USNS Marine Adder (T-AP-193) to Kobe, Japan.
March 17, 1952- March 30, 1952	x	Enroute/Sgt	x	*****6th Replacement Draft leaves Kobe, Japan aboard the USNS Walter H. Gordon, arriving in San Francisco, CA on March 30, 1952.
	x		x	Entries above need to be inserted for Jack H. Mason
March, 1942	x	Family	x	Married Elizabeth "Betty" Ann Nau, a North High June, 1942 graduate
November 9, 1945	x	Discharge	x	Official separation from the US Marine Corps (USMC Separation Center); Great Lakes, IL
After WWII	x	Employment	x	Worked for government as an electrician.
1980	x	Retirement	x	From work as an electrician
November 10, 2011	x	Deceased	x	Interred at Highland Memory Gardens, Des Moines, IA

*Camp Pendleton, CA
The Battalion reactivated 1 October 1949 at Camp Pendleton, California, as the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force. It was redesignated 7 July 1950 as the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, Fleet Marine Force. It deployed during August 1950 to Korea , and was redesignated 13 September 1950 as the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force. the unit participated in the Korean War Operating from Pusan Perimeter, Inchon-Seoul, Chosin Reservoir, East Central Front, and Western Front. It participated in the defense of the Korean Demilitarized Zone from July 1953 to February 1955. The Battalion relocated during March 1955 to Camp Pendleton, California.

**USS General George M. Randall (AP-115)
Korean War
As an MSTS ship, USS General George M. Randall made scheduled runs between the West coast of the United States and the Orient until fighting erupted in Korea in the summer of 1950. She participated in the amphibious assault at Inchon which routed the North Korean Army and forced Communist evacuation of South Korea. After hordes of Chinese Communist troops poured into Korea and trapped American forces, she served in the evacuation of Hungnam, which saved the embattled G.I.'s enabling them to return to the fight.
She moored at New York, New York, on 26 May 1951, and made four voyages from New York to Bremerhaven and Southampton before returning to the Pacific. On 11 March 1951, General George M. Randall departed Yokohama, Japan, with the bodies of 52 men, the first Korean War dead to be returned to the United States, including Major General Bryant E. Moore, who had commanded the IX Corps. Armed Services honor guards were in attendance at the departure, as was an Army Band, and was heavily covered by the press. The ship arrived at San Francisco, also carrying 1500 officers and men of the 1st Marine Division being rotated home for 30 day leave. She then returned to Yokohama on 24 October.

****USNS Marine Adder; T-AP-193
USNS Marine Adder (T-AP–193) was a troop ship for the United States Navy in the 1950s. She was built in 1945 for the United States Maritime Commission as SS Marine Adder, a Type C4-S-A3 troop ship, by the Kaiser Company during World War II. In 1950, the ship was transferred to the Military Sea Transport Service of the U.S. Navy as a United States Naval Ship staffed by a civilian crew. After ending her naval service in 1957, she entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet, but was sold for commercial use in 1967. Renamed SS Transcolorado, she was chartered by the Military Sealift Command as a civilian cargo ship designated T-AK-2005.

*****USS General Walter H. Gordon; T-AP-117
In November 1951, upon expiration of APL's charter, she was taken into the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS), reinstated on the Naval Vessel Register and placed in service as a civilian-manned Navy transport. USNS General W. H. Gordon (T-AP-117) departed San Francisco in December 1951 on the first of many trans-Pacific voyages in support of Korean War operations.

Des Moines Airport before departing for San Diego; October, 1949

From left: Hatfield Friend, Ted Hatfield, Eva Hatfield (mother), Gladys Willis and son, Bob Long,
Lee and Hazel Gates, Bob Gates, Ron Hartman (in rear), Mary Casebolt, Bob Gates's grandmother,
Gertrude Nelsen, Dick Stalcup, Deane Nelsen, Jens P. Nelsen

October, 1949: At Des Moines, IA airport on leave from Boot Camp
at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, CA
(Marines here now returning to San Diego, CA)


USS General George M. Randall (AP-115)	AP-115 Logo

USS General George M. Randall; AP-115 Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Ribbons awarded the USS General George M Randall; AP-115

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row-China Service Medal (extended) - American Campaign Medal - Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal
Second Row-Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal - Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp)
Third Row-National Defense Service Medal - Korean Service Medal - Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (1-Lebanon)
Fourth Row-Philippine Liberation Medal - United Nations Service Medal - Republic of Korea War Service Medal (retroactive)

Hwachon Dam Air Strikes, April-May 1951

Torpedo attack on the Hwachon Reservoir dam by AD "Skyraiders" of Attack Squadron 195 (VA-195) from USS Princeton (CV-37), 1 May 1951.
This successful strike, and earlier bomb attacks by Navy and U.S. Air Force planes, were made to deny the enemy the tactical use of controlled flooding on the Pukhan and Han rivers. Torpedoes were used after bombs failed to achieve the desired results. They destroyed one flood gate and partially destroyed another. This was the only Korean War use of torpedoes.The Hwachon Reservoir was later recaptured by U.N. forces.

Hwachon Reservoir Dam, North Korea


	Nov-Echo-Alpha-Foxtrot
USNS Marine Adder (T-AP-193)	Call Sign: NEAF

USNS Marine Adder; T-AP-193 Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - National Defense Service Medal
Bottom Row - Korean Service Medal (8) - United Nations Service Medal - Republic of Korea War Service Medal (retroactive)

USS General Walter H. Gordon (T-AP-117)

USS General Walter H. Gordon; T-AP-117 Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - American Campaign Medal - Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal
Second Row - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal - National Defense Service Medal (2)
Third Row - Korean Service Medal (4) - Vietnam Service Medal (2) - Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation (2)
Fourth Row - United Nations Service Medal - Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal - Republic of Korea War Service Medal (retroactive)


Higgins Boat	Sasebo, Japan	2nd Marine Division


		Korea: H-3-7 Column; April 1951

In Des Moines; October, 1949		Korea: C Rations in the field; Summer, 1951


above: Brick Memorial Wall; Gold Star Museum, Johnston, IA right: Camp Pendleton/1950: Bob Gates; Deane Gordon Nelsen

Jack H. Mason PFC/Radio Operator-776 2nd Marine Division United States Marine Corps
	photo of Jack H. Mason
Correct medals for Jack H. Mason coming Purple Heart, etc.

References

(1) Information was obtained from the Records on Military Personnel Who Died, were Missing in Action, or Prisoners of War as a result of the Vietnam War. This document can be found online at the National Archives and Records Administration at http://www.archives.gov/.

(2) The comprehensive list of names from North High's 1893-2018 graduation classes are from Claradell Shedd's North Des Moines High School website. The names of North High School graduates can be found online at: http://www.ndmhs.com/. Jack H. Mason's 1940 class page is: http://www.ndmhs.com/pages/yearclass1940(1990.50).html.

03/26/13. Died 11/10/11.

Music: "Semper Fidelis"