Jim Downey
speaker
621 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 13 Jul
Jim Downey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
It's the evening of May 28th, 1943.
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Captain Albert Pence and his men of the 32nd Infantry Regiment's B Company are wearily keeping their eyes peeled for Japanese soldiers as they trudge across a snow-covered valley on Alaska's minuscule island of Attu.
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Yes, you heard all of that correctly.
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American soldiers watching for the enemy on American soil.
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Lost American soil.
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Let me explain as we trudge right alongside Albert.
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This chapter of the war is largely forgotten, but as I trust you recall from episode 198, Japan's commander of the combined fleet, Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, didn't only send his ships to attack Midway last summer, he simultaneously sent forces to grab at the Aleutian Islands, a 1,200 mile long trail of American soil dotting the Pacific, running from Alaska toward Japan.
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though seemingly little more than frozen specks of earth.
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The most western of these islands are closer to Japan than they are to Seattle, Washington.
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Something not to be ignored in a world of long-distance aircraft.
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And between June 3rd and 7th, just as the Americans were snatching victory from the Japanese at Midway, the Japanese were nonetheless still squinting victory and doing a little snatching of their own.
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They took the far western Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu.
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And so, almost one year later, reversing that loss is what brings Captain Albert Pence and B Company to this frozen isle in the North Pacific.
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They are part of the 12,000-strong 7th Infantry Division that, for the past few weeks, has been waging a hard fight against the 2,300 or so Japanese soldiers holding Atu.
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That is, the poorly mapped, ridge and valley filled, snow-covered island of Atu.
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And tonight, the captain and his men have orders to move down Jim Fish Valley and fill a gap between some of the boys from the 17th Regiment.
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But just as this snowy march under a setting sun approaches its end, Albert hears a shot ring out.
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It's his first platoon.
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They stumbled upon Japanese soldiers.
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Realizing they're pinned, Albert brings the third platoon around on the right flank to come to their rescue, only to spot more of the enemy hiding out in foxholes.
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