This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Tommy Burgdorf (Birddog), FC2
to remember
Bourland, Joseph Hunt, LCDR.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Clarendon, TX
Last Address Bremerton, WA
Casualty Date Jul 11, 1943
Cause MIA-Finding of Death
Reason Lost At Sea-Unrecovered
Location Japan
Conflict World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Northern Solomon Islands Campaign (1943-44)/Sinking of the USS Runner (SS-275)
Location of Interment Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial - Honolulu, Hawaii
Description The American Theater was a minor area of operations during World War II. This was mainly due to both North and South America's geographical separation from the central theaters of conflict in Europe and Asia. Thus, any threat by the Axis Powers to invade the mainland United States or other areas was considered negligible, allowing for American resources to be deployed in overseas theaters.
This article includes attacks on continental territory, extending 200 miles (320 km) into the ocean, which is today under the sovereignty of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and several other smaller states, but excludes military action involving the Danish territory of Greenland, the Hawaiian Islands, and the Aleutian Islands. The most well known battles in North America during World War II were the Attack on Pearl Harbor (the first attack on US soil since the Battle of Ambos Nogales), the Aleutian Islands Campaign, the Battle of the St. Lawrence, and the attacks on Newfoundland.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1943
To Month/Year
December / 1943
Last Updated: Dec 24, 2023
Personal Memories
Memories On 27 May 1943, under command of Lieutenant Commander Joseph H. Bourland, she departed Midway for the Kuril Islands chain and waters off northern Japan. No report was heard from her. Captured Japanese records indicated that she sank the cargo ship Seinan Maru on 11 June in Tsugaru Strait off Hokkaidō, and the passenger-cargo ship Shinryu Maru on 26 June off the Kuril Islands. Runner was declared overdue and presumed lost in July 1943 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 October 1943.
