Perham Man Promoted to Captaincy
Eleventh AF Headquarters, Aleutians -- Marshall Newton Spear, Perham, Maine, now serving as
administrative inspector with the Eleventh Air Force in the Aleutian Islands, has been promoted
to the grade of Captain, Headquarters of Major general Davenport Johnson announced recently.
Capt. Spear received his commission at Miami Beach on March 3, 1943 and has served for 24 1/2
months in the Aleutians. Stationed on Hickam Field at the time of the Japanese attack upon Pearl
Harbor saw action there and on Attu Island when the American Forces were wresting the
Japanese held sections of the Aleutian Islands from their occupants. He now wears the
Asiatic-Pacific Ribbons with the Aleutian Campaign Star and the Pearl Harbor bronze Star, the
Good Conduct Medal and the American Defense Service Ribbon.
Prior to entering the service, Capt. Spear was a student at Caribou High School.
His parents Mr. and Mrs. Newton G. Spear, reside in Perham.
As a member of the Eleventh AF, Capt. Spear is part of the first Air Force to bomb the Japanese
homeland in this war. After routine bombings of Attu in 1943, the Eleventh AF lent air support to
the ground troops retaking that island, then pounded Kiska daily until the Japanese deserted that
island and, with the Aleutians retaken, crossed 1,000 miles of water to hit the Kuriles and become
the first air raiders to hit the Japanese homeland since General Doolittle's famous Tokyo raid in
1942. First attempted as daring reconnaissance missions, these Paramushiru and Shimushu
bombings, and deeper Kuriles raids, are now routine.
[1945]