North High School Wall of Honor
James Peter Kondes
Class of June, 1931
Research done by Claradell Shedd, Class of 1953.
James Peter Kondes
Peter graduated in the June, 1931 North High class. He enlisted or was drafted at Camp Dodge, IA. His service number was 37682531.Peter's next of kin was listed as Mr. and Mrs. James Kondes, 933 8th Street, Des Moines, IA
James Peter Kondes
Year x Rank x Status
June, 1931 x x x Graduated from North High, Des Moines, IA. Home Room 102.
datex x Employment x detail
October 16, 1935 x Family x Married to Catherine Cecelia McDonald at St. John's Catholic Church, Des Moines, IA
December 2, 1943 x US Army/PVT x Inducted at Camp Dodge Herrold, IA
Dec., 1943 x Training x Training with 3183rd Signal Service Corps. Where?
April 18, 1945 x Enroute x Departed from the United States.
date x Stationed x Stationed in Shanghai and Calcutta (3183rd).
January 26, 1946 x Enroute x Retured to the US
February 2, 1946 x US Army/PFC/
Discharged
x Where?
1946-1979 x Employment x Jewett Lumber Company, Des Moines, IA
1979 x Employment x Started Kondes Construction
date x Employment x detail.
May 19, 2007 x Deceased x Buried in Glendale Cemetery, Des Moines, IA.
3183rd Signal Corps Company/1944
During early 1945 new Signal Corps units came into China, India, and Burma, and older units reorganized.Units arriving in April and May 1945 included four signal service companies – the 3340th, the 3152nd, 3182nd, and 3183rd. In early April, General Reeder, the India-Burma chief signal officer, transferred the 432nd Signal Heavy Construction Battalion (Aviation) to the China Theater to help extend the long intertheater pole line eastward from Kunming to Tu-shan. By May, the China Theater was asking General Reeder for the 96th and 988th Signal Battalions as well. Despite these transfers to China, the India-Burma Signal Corps troop strength at the end of the war stood at 687 officers and 11,980 enlisted men.76 In May 1945, General Reeder was appointed G-4 on the staff of General Sultan, commander of the India-Burma Theater. Colonel Petzing was named chief signal officer of that theater, succeeding Reeder. The long pole line remained a major signal effort in those lands. Military demands upon its circuits continued to grow.

The demand upon the facilities of the Army Airways Communications System (AACS) “has now reached a point,” General Reeder commented on 19 May, “where they cannot clear PX’s over the hump by radio in time to beat the planes in.” India, Burma, and China theater commanders preferred wire line teletypewriter service, and Reeder intended they should have it. “The coordination of Hump Lift and Hump Allocations, and the supply services,” he added, “literally demand fine communication between the depots of Calcutta and Chabua and the China SOS in Kunming.”

Suddenly in August the war ended. Allied effort in the CBI had kept the enemy out of India, driven him out of Burma, and maintained encouragement and assistance to China. In all this, General Reeder felt that the help to China in signal matters compared well with the work of others. “The splendid plans which were laid in the past (most of it due to [Henry L.] Page King, Neal, and Petzing),” he had written to General Ingles in February 1945, “are coming to fruition. As a result we are able to implement the Chinese plans better with troops than are most of the branches here.”

General Reeder had foreseen that the pole line in China might never meet a war need, but he saw other values that it might have. “Any pole line construction will ... be of service after the war to the Chinese government and to the Chinese people,” he said. If these communications facilities provided by the Signal Corps helped strengthen good relations between the United States and the Chinese, he felt all the effort and cost were well spent

Peter and Catherine; 1944
Peter James & Catherine Kondes; 1944 Military ID Photo for Signal Corps
Shanghai; 1944 Shanghai; 1944
Shanghai in 1944
Peter James & Catherine Cecelia Kondes; Glendale Cemetery, Des Moines, IA
James Peter Kondes
PFC
8183rd Signal Service Corps
United States Army
US Army Seal




Army Signal Corps Patch
1944
Correct uniform patches coming.



Army Rifle Expert



PFC Army

WWII Victory Medal; European-African-Middle East Theater w/2 Bronze Stars for Rhineland and Central Europe; Meritorious Unit Award Ribbon and Patch; Good Conduct Medal

Correct medals coming: WWII Victory Medal; European-African-Middle Eastern Theater w/2 Bronze Stars for
Rhineland and Central Europe; Meritorious Unit Award ribbon and patch; Good Conduct Medal
References
(1) Information was obtained from the Records on Military Personnel Who Died, were Missing in Action, or Prisoners of War as a result of the Vietnam War. This document can be found online at the National Archives and Records Administration at http://www.archives.gov/.

(2) The comprehensive list of names from North High's 1893-2018 graduation classes are from Claradell Shedd's North Des Moines High School website. The names of North High graduates can be found online at http://www.ndmhs.com/. Peter James Kondes's 1931 class page is http://www.ndmhs.com/pages/yearclass1931.html.
Died:May 19, 2007 in Des Moines, IA
Music: "Wind Beneath My Wings"
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