Its been a while since I stopped in. My last visit had me looking for information on the 125th armored engineers which I thought my father was part of . Thanks to all the great leads and information from Marion I now am pretty sure my father was actually in the H&S company of batallion one in the 36th corp of engineers Through reading a letter from Wassenburg Germany that my father wrote in which he said "July 23rd 1945 tranferred to the 14th armored division 125th armored engineer batallion to be shipped to pacific between now and the end of the year" I know that the 125th was just to get him home. So thanks to everyone who offered me such wonderful help things are starting to make some sense and I am looking forward to finding out more.
I thought It might be a good time to dust off the War Poetry again.
Wilfred Owen was one of the greatest of World War I "Trench" Poets - those who actually slogged through the muck as an infantryman. He was killed only a month before the war ended. He tells the brutally honest truth of the war through his poems as seen in the following example:
Parable of the Old Men and the Young
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretch\ed forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son. . . .
Our forum member Reg and his wife, Anne, have been trying to adopt a baby, and I am happy to report the paper work has gone through and they are now waiting to pick up their son in a few months. Here's two of the letters he sent my way. Just had to share. CONGRATS you two!!!
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Dear All ,
A few days ago you received my mail telling you we have become proud parents .
Attached you find the first pics of our son . One taken when he was 5 months . The other one taken about 10 days ago .
We will be flying into Ethiopia to pick him up in about 3 months from now .
His name is MATHIEU Jans , pronounced as Matthew but without the ‘W’ and is a real stud…J
All the best
Reg
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Dear friends ,
I’m writing this messages during my lunch break with tears in my eyes .
Two hours ago we received a phone call from the adoption agency to congratulate us for becoming parents of a healthy boy , born 17 february 2008 .
That’s all we know so far , being very weary from receiving that call we forgot his original name so I have to call them back later this afternoon .
Tomorrow they are expecting us at the office where we will get all the info about our son and we can see his face on a picture for the first time .
We didn’t have a chance yet to personally inform our family . They’ll find out about it tomorrow .
In times of crisis and wars there’s always a light that shines somewhere . Today it shines in our hearts and so it will be for the rest of our life.
My dad [337th combat engineer battalion] had mentioned that he was shipped to the PI where he worked with an [engineer?] units nicknamed the 'Dodoh Birds" Anyone ever heard of this unit or have any info on it?
I am a Grandson of Staff Sergeant John. J Walkonis. of the 36th combat engineers, Co. C.
for the last several months I have been trying to retrieve every scrap of information I can about him.
He enlisted before the war, I believe he was in service 6 years prior. He was near his mid twenties when he was activated for the Second World War. He made 5 amphibious assaults, and was injured and discharged from Anzio.
His life was difficult after the war. His five children and wife, never knew who he was as he kept most of himself inside. he experienced night terrors every day of his life. I have requested his record be reconstructed. as his was destroyed like so many others in the big archive fire of the 70's. however, i feel i will be left with many more questions.
My goal is to find information about the man who was John J. Walkonis, and bring a side of him to light that none of his children or grandchildren ever knew. I hope I can find out more information about soldiers who served in his company and at the same time find out more about him. I wish to know what happened to him in Anzio, as the stories that have been told are filled with holes. If anyone has information regarding him or the fighting men of company, "C", I would be eternally in your debt.
I speak on his and my families behalf. John passed away in 2003.
He is in the 36th engineers history book under Company C. He looked like quite a character in my opinion.
S.SGT, John J. Walkonis, 36th engineers Co. "C" WWII
Sinerely,
Frank De Jesus
[son of Denise Walkonis(Daughter of John Walkonis)]
