1571st Heavy Shop Company

T/4 Bob Sternat

The photos above show T/4 Bob Sternat as (left) a recruit and (right) a veteran soldier on Biak Island off New Guinea.Bob served as a Heavy Equipment Mechanic with the 1571st which supported the 3rd Brigade ESB at New Guinea, Luzon and Japan. Bob recalls he had two jobs while in the Army, one day and one night. His day job saw him conducting 3rd and 4th echelon repairs to heavy equipment dozers, graders and building equipment for sappers. His night job was as a saxaphone player with the Army Special Services.

Bob's story of overseas as provided by him.

NEW GUINEA - 1944, Buna, Oral Bay, 5th Replacement Depot, Special Services, Saxaphone Player for USO and Base shows after the 41st Division crossed the Owen Stanley Mountains and the 32nd Division had landed on the shores at Buna. The Band was a great one with side men from the big-bands. We also had a combo "The Continentals" because of the interacial players. I don't long for a return to the mosquito netting bars and atrabrine for malaria control, or the boas, or the darkness of the night when you might stumble over the tent ropes on your way to your 1/2 bath.

BIAK - 1944, Day job: Diesel Mechanic in heavy shop Company, 3rd Engineer Special Brigade Headquarters. Night job: Army Special Services Saxaphone Player with "The Islanders". We broadcast nightly from base H, Armed Forces Radio Station. Theme song was "Summertime" since we were on the equator and it was always summertime. Those Sunday drives to the coral caves where the Oriental enemy was encased with aviation fuel. His fortress became his tomb.As one kicked the jaw-bone of a Jap around, we remember the callousness and insanity of war. Then there were the natives for whom we would blast fish by placing explosives in the water. They just gathered them in as they floated on the water.

JAPAN - 1945, Initial occupation: Hokkaido and then to Yokohama, 4th Engineer Special Brigade motor pool (day job), and then Army Special Sevices big band (night job) as saxaphone player in the house band of the Grand Hotel, Yokohama.

HOUSE BAND, GRAND HOTEL, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN ON A CHRISTMAS EVE GIG BY MY PEOPLE'S ORCHESTRA IN THAT BALLROOM for THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION FORCES, 1945

Music in the Military Service might have saved my life as the personnel guy in the 5th Replacement depot in southern New Guinea was a high powered trumpet player from Adrian Rollini's Orchestra assigned to pull the musicians from the replacement depot to form a show unit orchestra and combo. Casualties, as you know, are the reason for the need for replacements. There were 5,000 replacements from which to go into combat in the New Guinea, East Indies, Philippines and Borneo Campaigns which were taking lives in 1944 and 1945 .... And there was this show unit.....

We backed up USO shows and had our own shows. M.C. Sy Novich was from the Adirondacks "Borscht Circuit". His straight man Ned Flarety was a radio announcer from Boston.

Feliz Garcia, guitarist with Xavier Cugat, Jazz guitarist Bobbie Townsend was from Phille. Our Percussionist, Ransom Everett, was college boy from the University of Michigan who commuted to Chicago to play with Bob Strong's Orchestra on the Uncle Walter's Network Variety show. Marty Friedman played piano and was from the Jerry Wald Orchestra. This was a job that had to be done while the battles were the hardest during the worst part of the Pacific War. I played with the "Continentals" (this is the original Continentals).

Biak. East Indies, Base H Special Services, we had a 5 piece combo. "The Islanders". The Theme song was "Summertime" since we were on the equator and summertime was all of the time. We broadcast weekly over Armed Forces Radio over the Pacific. This was in contrast to another radio show on the JAP network called "Tokyo Rose".

After VJ Day in the Philippines, I played with the 3rd Engineer Brigade Band, and in the Grand Hotel Band in Yokohama.

Headquarters

1571st Engineer Heavy Shop Company

563D Engineer Boat Maintenance Battalion

3D Engineer Special Brigade

APO 920

Roster dated12 Nov 1945

Traynor John H. Capt.
Boyle Joseph E. 1st Lt.
Cawley Joseph F. 1st Lt.
Horwege Lynn A. 1st Lt.
Hendrickson George G. 2nd Lt
Bowen Floyd L. CWO
Bennett George B. 1st Sgt.
Freeman Clarence W. T/Sgt
Hill Edward D. T/Sgt
Melhorn Kenneth L. T/Sgt
Beeler Harold F. S/Sgt
Belt Glen F. S/Sgt
Flinn George E. S/Sgt
Fuller Lester F. S/Sgt
Gose George J. S/Sgt
Berube Lucien L. T/3
Boester Wayne J. T/3
Cieszynski Anthony S. T/3
Duncan Charles C. T/3
Felicione Paul S. T/3
Foltz Joseph T/3
Hamiel Jay L. T/3
Holm Roy S. T/3
Klein Nelson N. T/3
Riddle Johnie C. T/3
Robinson Edward C. T/3
Rush Paul S. T/3
Smith Elmer F. T/3
Story Paul C. T/3
Swanson Donald C. T/3
Swope Charles R. T/3
Thompson Jesse C. T/3
Vicary Chester T. T/3
Young William H. T/3
Amen Sr. George H. Sgt.
Christy Verne W. Sgt.
Wise Claude W. Sgt.
Adams Stanley H. T/4
Baughman Stacy W. T/4
Bley Arnold A. T/4
Brown Arthur W. T/4
Calabro Frank N. T/4
Cohn Herbert N. T/4
Croswell Kenneth E. T/4
Davies William D. T/4
Duncan George L. T/4
Dye Robert J. T/4
Fennell Charles E. T/4
Fischer Ernest A. T/4
Foote Merle F. T/4
Forand Joseph L. T/4
Gazzam Harvey B. T/4
Gibson Kenneth A. T/4
Hartup Frank J. T/4
Hartz Lyth O. T/4
Hoffman James O. T/4
Knapp Norbert C. T/4
Lambkie Harold H. T/4
Lewandowski Carl T/4
Linn Jalmar E. T/4
Linski Joseph H. T/4
Logsdon Doyle L. T/4
Music Robert T/4
Pepper Jasper O. T/4
Poulson Edward T/4
Rhein Douglas F. T/4
Romaro Benancio R. T/4
Roudebush George W. T/4
Rouviere Adrian T/4
Scheemaker Edmund T/4
Shaffer William E. T/4
Tolan Raymond J. T/4
Wollick Elmer L. T/4
Wholly Arthur G. T/4
Zukas Charles J. T/4
Aten James R. T/5 through 11/44
Brennan John H. Jr. T/5
Brewer Franklin W. T/5
Casalena Girard C. T/5
Crawford Joseph W. T/5
Daugherty Johnny H. T/5
Davis Meryl M. T/5
Fihrer Norman H. T/5
Fleeger William A. T/5
Flick Tom J. T/5
Gilbert Adrian E. T/5
Gill Jack L. T/5
Gootoe Hubert G. T/5
Griffin Ralph N. T/5
Guess John W. T/5
Hansell Francis T/5
Jaeckel Carl O. T/5
Jordan Edward R. T/5
Kaplan Harry T/5
Kipp Jr. Walter T/5
Kleinjan Ervin N. T/5
Kratochvil Frank T/5
Martin Antonaccio T/5
McDaniel Cecil A. T/5
Medeiros Manuel Jr. T/5
Mulligan Harry E. T/5
Mullock Amza L. Jr. T/5
Myers Maynard A. T/5
Nash Wallace A. T/5
Nossokoff Arthur T/5
Olson Clarence B. T/5
Petrucci Louis J. T/5
Phillips Alfred T/5
Phillips Cleston H. T/5
Price Ralph I. T/5
Prickett George S. T/5
Quam Alex M. T/5
Rasmussen Frank P. T/5
Rhodes Seab E. Jr. T/5
Rodgers Bernard T. T/5
Roskovensky Vincent S. T/5
Rothermel Raymond J. T/5
Rumolo Antonio J. T/5
Salonen Heikki T/5
Segebrecht William G. T/5
Shelton Robert C. T/5
Shoemaker George T. T/5
Smeltzer Harry W. T/5
Sproat Hugh R. T/5
Sternat Robert P. T/5
Sutcliffe Arthur H. T/5
Suter David E. T/5
Terwilliger Charles B. T/5
Watkins Wilmer H. T/5
Williams Carl T/5
Adams Charles G. Pfc.
Benko Paul E. Pfc.
Goldstein Robert H. Pfc.
Inglis Harry E. Pfc.
Jenkins Robert F. Pfc.
Johnson Warren O. Pfc.
Jolly William T. Jr. Pfc.
Kujawa Edwards S. Pfc.
Martin Herve A. Pfc.
Meier Arthur J. Pfc.
North Charles J. Pfc.
Poland Otto E. Pfc.
Ragen Frank E. Pfc.
Reed John S. Pfc.
Rogers Richard W. Pfc.
Roither Harry C. Pfc.
Valuet Charles Pfc.
Viori Leslie J. Pfc.
Wagner Gordon D. Pfc.
Wilson Albert E. Pfc.
Wiseman Edward J. Pfc.
Yancy Ernest S. Pfc.
Breger Thomas F. Pvt.
DeRoy Amedee N. Pvt.
Downs Edward T. Pvt.
Foster Lester C. Pvt.
Fullerton Francis F. Pvt.
Korab Anthony S. Pvt.
McNeil Thomas J. Pvt.
Weitz Isaac Pvt.
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