The China-Burma-India Veterans Association was founded in Milwaukee, WI in 1948 as the only veterans organization representing an entire Theater of Operations as opposed to those founded by various units (e.g. The Hump Pilots Assoc., The Flying Tigers of the 14th Air Force, etc.). The CBIVA closed its books in 2005 and contributed its assets to the World War II Museum in New Orleans and the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, TX.

   From its birth, the organization had a quarterly publication, CBIVA Sound-off, devoted to publicizing the activities of units being formed throughout the United States. When I (David Dale) became editor in 1981, the organization had a healthy treasury and its leadership approved an enlargement of the magazine's size. The largest issue had 80 pages but ease of production called for a smaller size and the norm became 64 pages. With lots of space to fill, the local units, called "bashas" began to send longer articles and photos to help grow their membership. (A basha was an Indian building constructed of bamboo siding and straw and thatch roofing and was the dwelling many CBIers were housed in.)

   Lt. Col. Joseph B. Shupe (USA Ret.) saw the expansion of Sound-off as an opportunity to research and record the histories of many CBI units which contributed to the Theater's

Lt. Col. Joseph B. Schupe (USA Ret.)

unique role in the Second World War. Joe's articles cover the broad scope of the many units of the U.S. Army and Air Corps serving in CBI. The "Addendum" has been inspired by the articles submitted by CBIers telling their personal or specific unit's contribution to the war in the CBI Theater.

   We have collected the articles we deem to be the best in the 52-year history of The CBIVA Sound-off, and compiled them into a book. The prime writer was Lt. Col. Joe Shupe of Springfield, VA, a suburb of Washington, D.C. He gleaned his facts for his articles from the military archives to which he had access. CBI veterans always referred to the CBITO as "The Forgotten Theater." A more apt title might be "The Unknown Theater" because even many World War II veterans were ignorant of our presence in Asia at the time.

   This collection of histories of the various U.S. military arms in CBI was was assembled for military museums which we felt might be disinterested in the CBIVA activities but might appreciate 200-plus pages of the histories of outfits posted to this distant and God-forsaken area of the world (to us G.I.'s). We hope you enjoy and excuse the amateur production. We produced several of these books. Had we realized the number of ink cartridges used, and mistakes made, etc. we would have considered a professional printing establishment.

David Dale, Editor             

The book is presented here in eleven separate PDF document files of approximately five megabytes (5MB) each, identified as SECTION 1 through SECTION 11. Adobe Reader is required to view these files. All eleven sections are contained in a ZIP file of approximately 53MB identified as ALL SECTIONS. PDF files created by David Hanneke (Dave Dale's grandson).

Click to open the desired section and view online. Allow time for download to complete.

SECTION 1   SECTION 2   SECTION 3   SECTION 4   SECTION 5   SECTION 6   SECTION 7   SECTION 8   SECTION 9   SECTION 10   SECTION 11   ALL SECTIONS

THE BEST OF  

This project is dedicated to the men and women of the Army, Air Corps, WAC and Red Cross
who served in a hostile environment without many necessities or amenities because of the
Theater's low priority and the thousands of miles between them and the source of supplies.


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