I first discovered the book Aleutian Echoes on October 24, 1998, at the Monona Terrace Conference Center, Madison, at a military history symposium. It was displayed on a table set up by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. For a year prior, I had been researching the experiences of U.S. Geological Survey geologists who had studied the Aleutians in the period 1946-1954, and I had begun to record oral histories of many of the men. Needless to say, I stayed up all night reading this book by some guy by the name of Charles C. Bradley, whom the end piece said lived in Baraboo Wisconsin! The next day I looked up his number in the phone book and called. Within a few days I received a call back and set up a time to go visit.

Nina advised me that Charlie's memory was fading and that I shouldn't expect that he'd be able to answer specific questions. When I did go, I had a charming visit with Charlie and Nina. I saw some of the original paintings that graced the book. And as Nina had warned, Charlie could not recall specific incidents or people that I asked him about. But that was OK...he had put down his memories several years before and they are there for us all the read.

As a historian, I am interested in how things happen, and I always wondered how Charlie came to write the book. Then in 2004 when Mary Diman had the inspiration to put this exhibit on (The Science and the Art of Charles C. Bradley, May 3-31, 2005 at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters in Madison), I realized that this might be the opportunity to delve into that question. Visiting his son Charles Jr., Mary and I found several boxes of papers and correspondence that appeared to have some clues. That was the start and had enough clues to lead to an answer, which I present here.

John Fournelle, Madison, WI

January 1978
Charlie wrote a short piece about Aleutian ravens playing and behaving “oddly", and sent it to a few people for comments. They liked it and suggested he send a copy to Charles Kemper of Chippewa Falls who edited the small journal Passenger Pigeon. It was published later that year in Vol. 40, winter issue, as "Play Behavior in Northern Ravens." Over the next six years, Charlie would write and see published eight "popular press" articles, dealing both with his own personal history and its intersections with the environment and ecology, and with snow and skiing.

April 5, 1988
He gave a talk to the Fortnightly Literary Club of the Sauk County Historical Society on the Aleutians in World War II. He had also given a talk to this group in 1978 at the Leopold Reserve in Baraboo. In his files is the 2+-page paper mainly on geological background, the weather, human history, and strategic importance in World War II. There is little on Charlie's experiences - presumably they were extemporaneous.

May 1988
Michael Myers of Tualatin, Oregon contacted Charlie by phone. Myers is a military history buff and was looking for information on the 10th Mountain Division and particularly on its 1942 expedition on Mt. Rainier to test food and equipment. He had tracked down the official report in the National Archives. Charlie was listed as one of the main people in the expedition - and Charlie was a member of the veterans group and his phone number was listed. In the ensuing correspondence, it emerged that Charlie has some records from the period at Ft. Lewis, particularly the photographic appendix to the report that Myers was looking for, as well as many slides and prints of the Rainier expedition.

It developed that this was a critical contact "out of the blue" that enabled Charlie to gain access to former colleagues and to archived documents that provide a framework (dates, names, places) upon which to weave his tapestry of memories. In the acknowledgement to Aleutian Echoes, Charlie cites his great indebtedness to Mike Myers.

From documents and letters Charlie's files:

June 1988
A four-page bibliography on Alaska in WWII, from the Army's Military History Institute, and a handwritten addition dated January 20, 1989 with two more sets of archived papers.

(It would appear that following talking with Mike Myers, Charlie contacted the military historians at USAMHI at Carlisle, PA to see what records they had on his unit in the Aleutians. He would have followed up with an inquiry to the military department of the National Archives. As stated in the letter below, he came up with a big goose egg.)

May 4, 1989
(In a letter to 10th Mountain Division historian Walter Galson): “Recently I had occasion to give a paper on the Aleutian experience [Fortnightly Literary Club?] and could find nothing in the public literature about the NPCS [North Pacific Combat School in the Aleutians]. This led me to the thought that I might write a history of it to help complete the record of the 10th.  ...To my horror the staff of the National Archives could find no mention of the NPCS. As we were not allowed to keep journals, I am left with nothing but my vivid, though highly flawed, 45 year old memories. I have a good collection of slides but they were withheld by the army until a year after I was discharged and so are not as well identified as they should be."

Fall 1989:
Charlie attended the reunion of veterans of the 10th Mountain Division at French Lick, Indiana. Reunions are held every three years; this apparently was the only one he attended.

(Winter 1989-1990: I speculate that Charlie was hard at work on compiling his memories and putting them together in the form of a manuscript that would be a history of the NPCS.)

Early summer 1990
Charlie receives a letter from one of his Aleutian buddies ('Mar' Quick) who had been in a fall on Adak, recounting his memories. Apparently Charlie was contacting guys who had been in the NPCS, to clarify some of the events from that period.

July 31, 1990
Letter from Dan Hawkins suggesting Charlie send his manuscript to the University of Alaska Press. (Hawkins was Charlie's first grad student at MSC, and was on University of Alaska-Fairbanks faculty. Charlie and Nina had visited him in Alaska in the mid-1980s).

August 17, 1990
Charlie sent his manuscript on the history of the NPCS to the University of Alaska Press. Apparently it did not include color reprints of his paintings and probably did not include the color slide photos.

September 6, 1990
UA Press sent Charlie a "semi-rejection" letter saying the editorial board did not think it scholarly enough; she suggested he look for another publisher, and if he later wanted to retry at UA Press, she would carry the torch.

September 19, 1990
Charlie's letter, thanking the managing editor for her "semi quasi-partial rejection letter.... I appreciate your suggestions and help. This is my first (and probably last) attempt at a book. Typical elderly person's attempt to prevent the world from forgetting his personal history. Other than the scant possibility that my grand kids might be interested I have no idea who might want to read it. It's a disadvantage to have no sense of audience. I never thought of publishing until I was up to my ears (?) in the tale. So I'll probably grind it out to the end no matter what. After all I have to have some vehicle to carry all my slides and sketches before they get into the paper-recycling machine. That would be a tragic end to all that dedication to an American victory in the Pacific."

Over the next year and a half Charlie would continue to refine the book, receive recollections from NPCS colleagues, search for a publisher, and get feedback from reviewers. One suggested change is that it not be the history of a military unit per se, but rather a story of his life and “adventures” in that era and place.

January 1992
An editor at UW Press (which received his manuscript) wrote to the UA Press that they really should reconsider the manuscript.

February 13, 1992
Charlie finally gets information about the NPCS from military archives.

March 23, 1992
University of Alaska Press responds to Charlie, asking him to send the updated revised manuscript.

November 1994
University of Alaska Press publishes Aleutian Echoes!

More information may be found on the University of Alaska Press website. Aleutian Echoes is listed with the publisher's History and Politics topics.

Charlie's dedication to the book reads, "To Pop, who, early on convinced me that life is a great adventure and that adventure in the mountains is the apex. And to Nina: my mover-shaker wife who kept this story moving with her arpeggios on the computer key board and by shaking me when needed."

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This page was created 07-15-06 by M.D. and most recently modified 08-04-06. For comments or corrections please email.