Lieutenant Nathan Bond WW2 Artillery Soldier in the Dutch East Indies

Nathan J Bond was born 6 Feb 1917 in Ida Grove, Iowa. An outstanding multi-sport athlete in high school and college, Nate enlisted in the US Army in November of 1940 while he was still in college. He was assigned to the Field Artillery Battery F out of the Vermillion South Dakota. This unit was part of the 147^th Battalion which was mobilized in late 1941 to head out to Northern Australia. 

According to an account from the South Dakota State Historical Society, Journey to Timor: South Dakota National Guardsmen in the Dutch East Indies, 1942 by Robert G. Web, then Sgt. Nate Bond performed some feats of courage while in the southeast Asian waters. (For the complete chapter from this publication click here.)

"When the 147th and 148th Field Artillery regiments arrived in Darwin, they found the military situation in the South Pacific discouraging. In British Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and the American Philippines, Japanese forces were advancing at an alarming rate. To help strengthen Allied defenses in the Darwin area, the two artillery units were assigned to the Australian Army's tiny Northern Territory Forces. On 24 January, the Northern Territory Forces became part of the newly created American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Com- mand, the first Allied command of the war. British general Sir Archibald Waveil headed the command, establishing his headquarters at Batavia, Java, in the Dutch East Indies. Wavell's orders were to hold the Malay Barrier, a hastily drawn Allied defense line that included British Malaya, the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Timor in the Dutch East Indies, and northern Australia. In addition, the command was to operate as far beyond that line of defense as possible in order to check Japanese advances and restore communications with the Philippine Islands.

"On 29 January, as part of the attempt to fulfill these orders with the limited resources available, ABDA Command called upon the 147th to furnish an officer and fifteen enlisted men for a special mission. Each man was to be a volunteer and a strong swimmer. The individuals selected included Sgt. Nathan Bond of Ida Grove, Iowa; … Except for Sergeant Bond, who belonged to Battery F of Vermillion when the 147th mobilized in 1940, the non-South Dakotans were either draftees or regular army enlistees assigned to the regiment at Fort Ord in 1941

"… While the Peary (the ship Bond was on) stood offshore. Burnside (officer in charge of the volunteer unit) and his men hoisted the gasoline barrels, which had been lashed into rafts, overboard and used the ship's lifeboats to tow them toward the beach. The scheme might have worked in calm seas and daylight. Instead, the surf was high, and the night was dark as pitch.

"As Private Meyer recalled: "We got toward those big waves, and those barrels came right aboard. We either had to get out of there or get crushed. We saw what happened to the other boat. We cut the barrels loose but still couldn't get to shore—the waves were that big." Lieutenant Burnside ordered the men, who were wearing life jackets, to jump into the sea and make for the beach. "You know," remembered Meyer, "some of the guys took their shoes off and everything, but I kept my gun on my side and kept my shoes on. … While the original call for volunteers had stipulated that all the men be good swimmers, three soldiers apparently had not been informed of this requirement."' Pvt. Kenneth Wold, a non-swimmer, hesitated to go over the side of the boat. Meyer remembered that Wold's eyes "were as big as saucers." Sgt. Nathan Bond, who stood six feet, two inches tall, weighed 225 pounds, and had been an outstanding athlete at the University of South Dakota, took Wold into the water with him. Together, they rode the breakers into shore."

Nathan J Bond would be promoted to Lieutenant before he left the Army at the end of the war. He went back to school to get his teacher’s certification and was a popular high school athletic coach for many years in his home state of Iowa.

Sometime in 1941, Nate met Shirlie Montgomery on his way to Fort Ord in Monterey California for training and ultimate deployment to SE Asia. As Shirlie did with so many soldiers and sailors who stopped in San Jose during WW2, she and Nate struck up a friendship and wrote each other often. Nate sent her numerous photos (and a bunch of negatives for her to print) as well as some Japanese “funny money” from the war.

A while back I put a number of letters and photographs from Nate Bond for sale online. Tom Saluzzo of Arizona purchased a few of lots from me and created a really nice display … he said he wanted to keep this WW2 correspondence together. What a great idea … and he did a very fine job.

I want to thank Tom Saluzzo for sending me photos of his excellent display and for finding the article about Nate in the East Indies.