World War II Honoree

William E. Aubuchon, Jr.

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

Fitchburg, Massachusetts

Honored By

Mariette A. Young

Volunteered into the U.S. Army on March 25, 1942. Inducted at the Fort Devens Army Base in Shirley, Massachusetts. After indoctrination, assigned to Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama in the Infantry Replacement Training Center where 8 weeks of infantry training was completed. Assigned to Company C, 16th Battalion. Remained with the Company as a Training Infantry Corporal for about 16 months at Fort McClellan. The Army created the Specialized Army Training Program in late June 1943. Selected to go to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for re-assignment to the University of North Carolina. In Chapel Hill, he was made the acting commander of the Company, still as a Corporal. This academic period was for 10 months. The program was to teach them French to help restore order following the D-Day invasion in towns and cities in France. In December 1944 during the Battle of Bastogne, this Army Specialized Training Program was dissolved. All were re-assigned. Sent to fort in Missouri. Assigned to the Signal Corps where he learned to climb telephone poles and give instructions. In April 1944, he was re-assigned to Warrenton, Virginia in the Army Intelligence Section, learning to break the Japanese code. This unit was assigned to Brisbane, Australia in November 1944. Later moved to a camp in San Juan, north of Manila, the Philippines when the war ended in August 1945. He was honorably discharged at Fort Devens in Shirley, Massachusetts in January 1946 as a Corporal.