Jack Thomas in the 191st Signal Repair Co.- China-Burma-India Theater of World War II

Jack Thomas in the 191st Signal Repair Co.

S/Sgt. Jack Thomas 1945

The 191st Signal Repair Company, consisting of about 200 men, left the Los Angeles Port of Embarkation for India on December 18, 1944 aboard the U.S.S. Billy Mitchell. We were assigned MP duty on the trip which gave us the run of the ship and three meals a day (others got two). We stopped at Hobart, Tasmania, spending three days there before continuing on to India. We arrived in Bombay on January 2, 1945.

From Bombay we took a train across India to Calcutta, where we picked-up our vehicles. We had four jeeps, four 4X4 weapons carriers, 15 mobile bus bodies and twenty 4X6 trucks. From Calcutta we drove to our final destination of Ledo in Assam.

After living in bashas for a short while, we were issued British Army tents which we had to set up. We then started fifth echelon repair (if we couldn't fix it, nobody could) on all radio, telephone and teletype equipment from Ledo, India to Kunming, China. We also took care of the large power units in the area, so we always had our own electricity. I was a S/Sgt. in the Radio Repair Section.

The 191st Signal Repair Company was quite unusual. There is only one Signal Repair Company to an Army. We were self-contained with our own mess hall and motorpool. We also had detachments in Myitkyina, Lashio and Bhamo.

Because we took care of the Engineering Department, fixing projectors for their dayroom, radios, etc., they built a 100x100 foot building for us which we promptly named "Club 191." With daily supplies of booze furnished by the MP's, who also had their own projectors and radios, we were able to keep a club for parties, which we had quite frequently. We had a Company Orchestra and bartender, with basha boys for waiters. We had most of the nurses from the 20th General Hospital and Red Cross girls as guests.

I had a darkroom in the Supply Room where I developed these pictures taken with an Argus C-3 camera. As things got better over there, I had access to more photo paper and supplies.

We returned to the United States in March of 1946 aboard the U.S.S. General Bliss.

JACK THOMAS ( jet623 at excite dot com )
December 2005

U.S.S. William L. "Billy" Mitchell (AP-114)

U.S.S. General Tasker H. Bliss (AP-131)