textfusonervinthomas1943.html

North High School Wall of Honor
Ervin Thomas Fuson
Class of January, 1943

Research done by Claradell Shedd, Class of 1953.

Ervin Thomas Fuson

Ervin was a member of North High's class of January, 1943. His next of kin was Lester E. Fuson who lived at 1247 10th Street, Des Moines, IA. Ervin's service number was 37671578.

Ervin Thomas Fuson

Year		Rank		Status

January, 1943		x		Graduated from North High, Des Moines, IA
Summer, 1943	x	Drafted; US Army Air Force Private	x	Camp Dodge, IA.
1943		US Army		Seven weeks. Lincoln Army Air Force Base, Lincoln, NE
1943	x	US Army	x	Seven weeks. North Dakota Agricultural School (for Army Administration)
1943	x	US Army	x	Nine weeks. Jefferson Barracks; St. Louis, MO. Army Replacement Training Center
1943	x	US Army	x	To East Coast via train.
1944-45	x	US Army/Sergeant	x	30 days via Empress of Scotland (Canadian Pacific steamship line); Atlantic Ocean via Capetown, South Africa, to Bombay, India, and to north of Calcutta, India. From north of Calcutta to upper Assam, India in northeast India. Was in 315th Troop Carrier Squadron, part of 443rd Troop Carrier Group; 10th Air Force; Flying cargo planes (C-47's and C-46's).
1944	x	*CBI Theater; China/Burma/India Theater	x	One month. To Burma, then back to India.
Aug, 1945- Dec.,1945	x		x	War was over. Flying cargo planes (C-47's and C-46's) in China.
Dec., 1945	x	Enroute	x	18 days on small military supply vessel USS Hydrus (AKA-28) from Shanghai, China to Seattle, WA.
	x	US Army	x	Ten days at Ft. Lawton, WA.
	x	US Army	x	To Fort Leavenworth, KS. Discharged. Train to Des Moines.
Thereafter	x	Civilian	x	Career. Retired, after 41 years, from IMT Insurance Company as Executive VP.
Nov. 4, 2009	x		x	Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.; 11/04/09. utube: Hy-Vee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8JpiqYbhN4 utube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JhzCV4oe30 (footage by grandson of Dean Carrico from Osceola, IA)
Nov. 24, 2014	x	Deceased	x	Des Moines, IA 50313

*What did the 3rd Combat Cargo Group have to do with Troop Carrier Groups you ask? Well, give me a few minutes or so and I'll try to give you an insight on this. The 3rd CCG was formed out of the immediate need for a new Air Transport Group in the China-Burma-India Theater. These new Groups immediate goal would be to help relieve the British Garrison at Imphal, then under siege by the Japanese. All other U.S.A.A.F. Commands were strapped with commitments and they could not spare any aircraft and crews for the situation in India. The Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, under considerable pressure, had coughed up temporary use of the 64th TCG for support in Burma but wanted them back in time for the Southern France landings and Admiral Mountbatten had the clout to demand and get replacements. As 1st and 2nd CCG’s were just starting training with Troop Carrier Command in the States, it was decided to activate the other two authorized CCG’s, the 3rd and 4th While the 4th was then activated and began training under TCC; the 3rd CCG would be rushed into battle, untrained and untested. The idea was to send this Group, then known as ‘Project 90752’ or the 'Bond Project' to the CBI Theater, let it do its job and then return to the USA for proper training under TCC.
The call went out for enough experienced aircrew and ground maintenance crew to report to Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, Florida, to operate 100 C-47’s. Except for new co-pilots, this group was much more experienced individually than most units but had no chance to work together as a group. One hundred (100) new C-47’s and their crews along with passengers departed for the CBI Theater and flew via the Southern Route to Karachi, India. There, ninety-six (96) C-47’s were greeted, (4 lost enroute, crews safe), by the new Commanding Officer of the 3rd Combat Cargo Group; Col. Charles Farr, formerly Commander of the 443rd Troop Carrier Group and his staff. The 3rd CCG’s four squadrons, the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Combat Cargo Squadron's all were assigned Commanding Officers from 443rd Troop Carrier Group units. Assigning the aircraft and crews to the four CCS’s of the 3rd CCG was rather straightforward. The first twenty-five (25) aircraft and crews to arrive were assigned to the 9th CCS under command of Capt. Donald King formerly of the 27th TCS. The next twenty-five (25) aircraft and crews were assigned to the 10th CCS under command of 1st Lt. Walter Duch (315th TCS). The next twenty-five (25) aircraft and crews were assigned to the 11th CCS, commanded by Capt. Clyde Alexander (2nd TCS) and the remaining aircraft and crews were assigned to the 12th CCS under command of Capt. Raymond Potter (27th TCS).

Although the 443rd TCG had only been in the theater since February 1944, many men had been flying combat missions there with the 1st and 2nd Troop Carrier Squadrons since February 1943, making for a very experienced bunch. The idea of using combat proven officers as Commanding Officers was to help the 3rd CCG get up to speed as quickly as possible, seeing their aircraft and the cargo they would carry was desperately needed in Imphal. All four CCS Commanding Officers began immediate training programs. This consisted of local flying to acquaint the ‘green crews’ with the nasty weather, the terrain they would be flying over and new flying skills that would be needed to help keep these ‘green crews‘ alive and to increase the Groups operational capabilities. This training was a success and it was planned to have the 3rd CCG begin flying combat missions on June 15th, 1944. On June 11, 1944, Lt. Duch and the 10th CCS jumped the gun and flew the first Combat Cargo Unit missions of the Second World War. The other three CCS’s began to fly combat missions on June 13, 1944.

The 3rd CCG proved to be in invaluable asset to the CBI Theater. When its job at Imphal and Kohemia was completed it was then decided not to send the 3rd CCG home to the states for training, the On-the-Job Training the Group had received in Combat was more than adequate and the Group remained in the CBI Theater until the end of the war. The 3rd CCG did its job, and it did it well. Through out their time in CBI the 443rd TCG and 3rd CCG Group flew together on many occasions, both in India and China thus keeping a tie between the two Commands.

In late Sept 1945, the 1st and 3rd CCG were redesignated 512th and 513th Troop Carrier Group’s, and their squadrons, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Combat Cargo Squadron’s were redesignated 326th, 327th, 328th, 329th, 330th, 331st, 332nd and 333rd TCS’s respectively.



	top: Empress of Scotland (Canadian Pacific Steamship); above: USS Hydrus; below: C-47 left top: India; 1944-1945. left bottom: China; Aug.-Dec.1945


Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.; November 4, 2009

Ervin Thomas Fuson
Sergeant
315th Troop Carrier Squadron
Part of 443rd Troop Carrier Group
10th Air Force

Basic Training; 1943; Lincoln Army Air Force Base; Lincoln, NE

Basic Training; 1943; Lincoln Army Air Force Base; Lincoln, NE

References

(1) The World War II Army Enlistment Records contain information on more than nine million indivdual enlistments. These records can be found online 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/. Ervin Thomas Fuson's 1943 class page is: http://www.ndmhs.com/pages/yearclass1943(2008.65).html.

05/02/10. Living in Des Moines, IA 50313. Died 11/24/14.

Music: "Wind Beneath My Wings"