log for that day reports that "By the will of God Stephen Buldirev, naval cooper, died of scurvy". Later that day "high land" was sighted in the rainy weather. Scholars believe that this was Buldir Island. The log recounts that Bering named it "St. Stephen Island", but at least as early as 1787 it appeared on Russian maps as Buldir (Булдырь). It may be that the cooper is commemorated in the island's name. World War II In June 1942, Japanese forces captured Attu and Kiska, to the west and east, respectively, of Buldir Island. On August 17, 1942, an America B-24 Liberator flew the first photo reconnaissance mission of the war which included Buldir. Several other reconnaissance missions were attempted in late-1942 and early-1943, both to see if the Japanese had occupied the island and to obtain weather information from the area. After losing Attu to the Americans in battle during May 1943, the Japanese withdrew from Kiska in July 1943. They did so without the Americans' notice. Puzzlement at the Japanese disappearance led to widely-reported speculation by officers of the 11th Air Force that they had sailed off on a fleet of barges to rendezvous with ocean-going transports in the lee of Buldir. In fact, the Japanese sailed eight transports into Kiska Harbor and evacuated the entire garrison under cover of fog. Buldir played no role in the evacuation. In October 1943, Buldir was occupied by a five-man team from the U.S. Army Air Corps' 11th Weather Squadron. Two were radio operators, and three were weathermen. The detachment's job was to report hourly weather observations and also to provide local air-traffic control as an Army Airway Communication System site. Its call sign was WUUL. Given the difficulty of landing a boat on the island, the detachment was largely supplied by air drop from Kiska. The weather station on Buldir was abandoned during the summer of 1945 at the close of the war. On March 3, 1944, Corporal Carl E. Houston walked away from the weather station and did not return. Search efforts at the time were unable to locate him. His fate remained unknown for decades. In 1988, wildlife biologists on Buldir found a skeleton still wearing Army boots with an M1 rifle by its side. Subsequent investigation by the Army Central Identification Laboratory verified that the remains were that of the missing soldier, but his cause of death