Pottawattamie County

Sgt. Duane W. Skow

 

 

Local Youth Is Busy On Saipan

Sgt. Duane W. Skow, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Skow, 504 South Sixth street, was a busy man the second day of the Saipan invasions, according to an army press correspondent who writes of the action:

“Six minutes after the field gun and crew commanded by Sgt. Skow rolled in an amphibian duck the gun was in action.

“Sgt. Skow and his men came ashore on the second day of the battle and immediately encountered heavy enemy fire. Despite the shrapnel the men worked in the open until the gun was ready to fire.

“That night during a fierce Jap counter-attack a mortar shell exploded in the gun emplacement, wounding five men. Undaunted, Sgt. Skow collected a makeshift crew of supply men and continued to fire. The gun was in action 10 straight hours.”

Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Friday, July 21, 1944, Page 5