This Military Service Page was created/owned by
LTC Bob Thompson
to remember
Fitch, Burdette, BG USA(Ret).
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Contact Info
Date of Passing Nov 06, 1977
Location of Interment San Francisco National Cemetery (VA) - San Francisco, California
Enlisted in Sep 1917.
Wounded during World War I while serving as a Company Clerk on the front lines.
Commissioned as Field Artillery 2LT in France.
Transfered to Adjutant General Corps in Feb 1941.
Retired in July 1953.
1942-1945, 42A, US Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas
US Army, Pacific (USARPAC) traces its history back to 1898, when the United States first became a Pacific power and American soldiers first arrived in Hawaii. Hawaii soon became a power-projection platform for military operations in the Asia-Pacific region. Fort Shafter was built in 1905-07 and in 1921 became the headquarters for the Hawaiian Department.
When Army and Navy forces in Hawaii and the Philippines came under attack on December 7, 1941, Hawaii quickly became a strategic hub. The Hawaiian Department became the Army component command under the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas. As the campaigns progressed, the command was designated US Army Forces, Central Pacific Area (1943-44); US Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas (1944-45); and US Army Forces, Middle Pacific (1945-47). Its insignia, designed in 1944, depicted the axis of advance across the Central Pacific.
