<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<p>Born in the Ukraine in 1907, Steve was brought to the US in 1911 when his parents settled in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the US Army in 1925, entered West Point in 1928 via an Army competitive appointment, and, upon graduation in 1932, was assigned to the Coast Artillery Corps. After a five-month detail in the Army Air Corps, where he learned to solo a PT-12 but not land it very gently, Steve joined his basic branch at Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii in early 1933. This was followed by five years of intense battery-level artillery training on armament varying in size from 3-inch to 16-inch cannon; a year at the Coast Artillery School; and assignment to Corregidor, Philippine Islands, where he commanded a 12-inch mortar battery manned by Philippine Scouts.</p>
<p>In mid-1941 Steve was detailed to General MacArthur’s USAFFE staff in Manila and charged with placing artillery batteries at locations throughout the Visayan Islands in order to prevent enemy naval vessels from entering the Inland Seas. Seven 8-inch railway guns; 24 155-mm cannon; and the manpower of the Philippine Army were made available for the project. By December 1941, Philippine Army units were training to man the equipment; all battery sites had been reconnoitered; contracts had been let for the construction of barracks, roads etc.; and concrete had been poured for the base of one of the 8-inch cannon. The Japanese invasion of the Philippines put a stop to this project; however, the trained units with their material were sent to Bataan.</p>
<p>The Japanese assault on Clark Field broke the back of US air power and left Manila with no defense against air attack. To partially solve the problem, USAFFE directed that 500 men from the 200th AAA Regiment at Clark Field join with 500 Philippine Army personnel and the stored equipment for an anti-aircraft artillery regiment, to form the 515th AAA Regiment. Steve assisted in this frantic effort to bolster Manila’s defense—after 36 hours of labor, the regiment sent up a respectable barrage of anti-aircraft fire and forced enemy bombers to drop their bombs from a safer but far less accurate altitude of 25,000 feet.</p>
<p>Despite the defensive efforts of USAFFE’s limited force, the Japanese pushed south and forced USAFFE headquarters to move to Corregidor on Christmas Eve in 1941. Four months of fighting on Bataan followed, with fresh Japanese units taking severe casualties before withdrawing. Finally, in April 1942, the USAFFE force on Bataan collapsed, and the enemy turned its attention to Corregidor. About 5 May, under cover of an intense artillery barrage, the enemy landed on Corregidor and established a beachhead. General Wainwright surrendered the garrison to avert the slaughter of military hospital patients and civilian evacuees.</p>
<p>Steve said his experience on the losing side of a war was both humbling and educational. After 11 grim POW months at Bilibid Prison, Manila, Camp #1 at Cabanatuan, and the Davao Penal Colony in Mindanao, Steve and nine other Americans escaped in April 1943. They moved north when they found small guerrilla units operating in the hills. After a month of hiking over uncharted jungle terrain, the group reached Japanese-occupied Butuan on the north coast of Mindanao. Here they found that a guerrilla radio station was located at Misamis, in Misamis Occidental Province about 100 miles to the west. Since it would have been hazardous in the extreme for 10 Americans to travel in enemy-occupied territory, it was decided that two would try to reach the radio station: Steve and Commander McCoy, US Navy, a communications officer.</p>
<p>Hiking at night, sleeping during daylight, and using fishing boats when possible, they reached Misamis, located the guerrilla radio stations, and sent a message to GHQ-SWPA in Australia. GHQ’s answer was to sit tight and wait until arrangements could be made to route a submarine to rendezvous with them in the Zamboanga area. Two weeks prior to the rendezvous date, a Japanese force invaded Misamis from the sea and forced Steve’s group to move cross country to the rendezvous area. After hiking 16 hours a day, the group reached the rendezvous point in mid-afternoon of the set date.</p>
<p>Steve said he sat in the boat and prayed. Suddenly, a huge black object emerged from the ocean about 25 yards away. It stayed at a 45 degree angle for a few seconds and leveled off with a huge splash. “All aboard,” someone shouted, and the POW group rushed to the conning tower and climbed below.</p>
<p>At Perth, Australia, they carried Steve, suffering from malaria, off the submarine. After a week’s stay in a military hospital, Steve flew to Brisbane and spent a few weeks there writing his report and being debriefed. He then went to the Pentagon for further debriefing.</p>
<p>Steve’s Pentagon debriefing was interrupted by a second malarial attack that delayed his return to Australia for a few weeks. Arriving at GHQ SWPA in September 1943, Steve was assigned to the G-3 Section for a month of orientation and then to the G-2 Section, where he headed the newly-formed Philippine Section charged with developing the emerging guerrilla movement.</p>
<p>The Philippine Section of G-2, GHQ, proved to be eminently successful. When US forces landed at Leyte in October 1944, GHQ was in contact with more than 150 radio stations manned by guerrillas. The guerrillas had watchers at all airfields and ports and reported most enemy ship and naval movements.</p>
<p>Following the US landing at Lingayen Gulf and the capture of Manila, Steve briefed the commanders and staff officers of the US elements preparing to attack Corregidor. After a bout of malaria, the medics gave Steve a bag of atabrine tablets and put him aboard a US oil tanker bound for San Francisco.</p>
<p>After five and one-half years of overseas duty, Steve did not object to the humdrum life offered by an assignment to the G-2 Section of the War Department. From that vantage point, Steve watched the disintegration of Hitler’s Third Reich and the surrender of Japan.</p>
<p>Four years with the Far East Branch of G-2 in the Pentagon were followed by one year (49-50) at HQ, Third US Army; one year (50-51) at the Army War College; three years (51-54) with the CIA; and one year (54-55) as commander of the 18th Artillery Group at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Steve was introduced to the Army’s surface to air missile-the Nike. Then followed an assignment to the J-2 Section of US EUCOM in Paris, France (55-56), promotion to brigadier general and assignment to the 32nd AAA Brigade in Mannheim, Germany, where the main task was to dispose of 14 gun battalions and replace them with six Nike Battalions in land-poor Germany. In 1957, Steve was designated commanding general of the newly-activated Seventh Army Support Command, which comprised 10 technical service groups of about 22,000 men.</p>
<p>In late 1958, Steve was assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas as the assistant commandant, US Army Air Defense School, where he stayed until August 1962 when he received orders to Fort Totten to become deputy commander of the First Army Air Defense Region. In May 1963 Steve suffered a heart attack and, after hospitalization, was retired for physical disability in November 1963.</p>
<p>Following retirement, Steve moved to El Paso, Texas.<br /> </p>
</body>
</html>