Joseph Aboud was born on 6 April 1910 in Bisbee, North Dakota to Minesses and Susan Aboud. Both Minesses and Susan were immigrants from Syria. Joseph was part of large Roman Catholic family. The family moved to California before 1920. Minesses worked as a farm labor and in caring for orchards. Joseph had had three brothers and two sisters. Two of his brothers would also serve during WW II and survive. Joseph had a grammar school education in Sunnyvale California.

Joseph registered for the Draft along with thousands of young American males on 16 October 1940. Joseph received an induction noticed and enlisted as a Private (PVT) in the US Army in San Francisco on 24 January 1941. Following basic training PVT Aboud was assigned to the 17th Infantry. The 17th Infantry Regiment (17th IN) was a regular Army Regiment assigned to the 7th Infantry Division (7th ID). The 7th ID was often referred to as the “California Division” early WW II due to the large levy of draftees from California assigned to its infantry regiments.

The 7th ID was training in the Mojave Desert in 1942 in preparation for combat as a Motorized Infantry Division to deploy to North Africa. The 7th ID was tasked in March 1943 to be the assault element in Operation LANDCRAB, the invasion of Attu Island, Alaska Territory, to retake it from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA).

Attu and Kiska Islands are part of the Aleutian Chain in Alaska and had been seized by Imperial Japanese Navy on 6 June 1942 as part of large Japanese Naval Offensive. There was no opposition to either landing. A small US Navy Weather Reporting Station on Kiska consisting of 10 personnel was captured and the US Navy sailors were sent to Japan as prisoners of war. The Island of Attu was captured by a Japanese Army Infantry battalion. Attu village at the time consisted of 43 Aleuts (Unanagin) and a female schoolteacher and her husband. The Japanese later transported the Aleuts as prisoners to Japan. The schoolteacher Etta Jones was also transported to Japan as a prisoner. Etta’s husband Foster Jones was executed by the Japanese on 6 June 1942 and buried by the Attu Villagers at the Russian Orthodox Church graveyard. At the end of the war 25 of the original 43 Aleuts from Attu were repatriated to the US. The remaining 18 died of disease and malnutrition in Japan.

On 11 May 1943 the 7th ID made three landings on Attu the main effort at Massacre Bay (Southern Force), a supporting effort at Red Beach north of Holtz Bay (Northern Force) and another supporting effort at Austin Cove by the 7th ID Provisional Scout Company. The 7th ID was opposed by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) 303rd Independent Infantry Battalion, anti-aircraft troops and other support units assigned to the IJA North Sea Area Defense. PVT Aboud landed in Massacre Bay as part of the Main Effort. PVT Aboud’s Company and Battalion have not been determined. He would have most probably been in the 2nd or 3rd Battalion.

PVT Aboud took part in the fight up Massacre Valley and up across the ridges of Attu to drive the Japanese back to Chichagof Harbor near the Attu Village site. By 29 May 1943, the remaining IJA troops and supporting Imperial Japanese Naval (IJN) Support Personnel had been pushed into the Chichagof Harbor area near the remnants and rubble of Attu Village. The Japanese Commander Colonel (COL) Yasuyo Yamasaki planned one final action, a deliberate attack against the US lines with the objective of breaking through and seizing the American Artillery Batteries in Massacre Valley and seizing American food stuffs. This attack would become the first mass Banzai attack that Americans faced in the Pacific during WW II. At approximately 0330 hours COL Yamasaki Samurai Sword in hand led the charge toward the American lines. It was during this final action on Attu when PVT Aboud was killed. Hospital Admission Cards indicate PVT Aboud was killed by rifle fire.

Private Joseph Aboud was 33 years of age at the time he was killed in action. He was unmarried and had no children. PVT Aboud had been in the Army for two years. PVT Aboud was initially interned at Little Falls Cemetery on Attu following the battle. In 1948 the US Army repatriated all the US remains to cemeteries in the Continental US. PVT Aboud is buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California. PVT Aboud was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal and the WWI Victory Medal. PVT Aboud also qualifies for the Combat Infantryman’s Badge (CIB) and the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Ribbon with Star.

Author’s Note:

PVT Aboud headstone at Golden Gate National Cemetery indicates he was born on 8 April 1910. PVT Aboud filled out his Draft Card with a date of birth as 6 April 1910. PVT Aboud was initially interned at Little Falls Cemetery which indicates he was assigned to 2nd or 3rd Battalions of the 17th Infantry. In honor of the bravery of the men that fought on Attu the remaining current Battalion of the 17th Infantry, 1-17th IN, A Company is referred to as “Attu” Company.

This story was written by Dennis V. Dupras of Alaska, former Paratrooper (Airborne Infantryman of the 1st BN 325th AIR, 82nd ABN DIV), Infantry Officer of 1st BN 17th Infantry, and graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Class of 1990. This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

SOURCES:

Alphabetical Listing Battle Deaths 7th Infantry Division by Organization 30 June 1947 James LaVerdue Collection

PVT Joseph Aboud (1910-1943) - Find A Grave Memorial

AncestryInstitution.com - U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

AncestryInstitution.com - 1940 United States Federal Census

AncestryInstitution.com - 1930 United States Federal Census

AncestryInstitution.com - 1920 United States Federal Census

U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 - AncestryInstitution.com

U.S., World War II Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954 - AncestryInstitution.com

AncestryInstitution.com - U.S., Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945

Attu, WWII KIA (hlswilliwaw.com)

Retaking the Aleutians | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans (nationalww2museum.org)

Joseph Aboud, Private, US Army, 17th Infantry