6/21/1943
2LT Robert B. Rodger and T/SGT Harry F. Rapp were killed on 21 June 1943. 2LT Rodger and T/SGT Rapp were both assigned to 5th Ordnance Bomb Disposal Squad (Separate), 707th Ordnance Company, 7th Infantry Division, which was the first bomb disposal unit to participate in an invasion during World War II. The 5th Ordnance Bomb Disposal Squad (Separate) was part of the Attu Island invasion force in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. 2LT Rodger and T/SGT Rapp were fatally injured by unexploded ordnance while carrying out bomb disposal operations a few weeks after the landing on Attu Island (11 May 1943). Note: QMC Form 14 Interment, also states concerning 2LT Rodger’s service data as being assigned to Bomb Disposal Attachment Air Corps in addition to being assigned to the 5th Ordnance Bomb Disposal Squad (Separate).
Additional Facts: Born: 7 March 1911, Scotland; Age: 32; Service Number: O1551300; Hometown: Montclair, New Jersey; Buried: Interred Holtz Bay Cemetery, Attu Island, Alaska, reinterred on 1 October 1948, Beverly National Cemetery, Beverly, New Jersey, Plot: Section: D, Site: 793.
*This bio was researched and authored by SGM Mike R. Vining, USA (Retired) with supporting research from the books, Nine from Aberdeen, by Jeffrey M. Leatherwood, Ph.D., and Bomb Disposal, The Early Years of Explosive Ordnance Disposal, 1940 to 1949, by LTC Robert E. Leiendecker, USA (Retired)