Just got this letter from my friend Mari. Her dad is a 297th Engineer. Some sad news in it about their museum. It broke my heart! Mari my heart does go out to you and all the engineers. I (we) would be DEVASTED!

Hello Marion,

Hope you are well. I've been meaning to email, but have been swamped. Dad, a heart patient, was in hospital for bronchitis last month (he's better now). So with the holidays, time got away from me. Mike is sending me a copy of the upcoming Engineer magazine featuring your article. I can't wait to see it!

On a sad note, our beloved 297th Combat Engineer Museum that was located in Owensboro, KY has burned down. I received the sad news from my "297th sister" Adele DePolo a few days ago.

Hal Miller, the owner & curator of the Musuem had a huge collection of WWII engineer memorabilia that was donated by many of our boys.

There was some news coverage on the local stations, here is a link: http://www.14wfie.com/Global/category.asp?...C=3492&nav=3w6o

"Hundreds gather for breakfast at Windy Hollow"

Hal was the organizer of many of our reunions, and the upcoming one will have to be moved. Luckily, no one was hurt. We are all quite devastated, and having to tell our Dads was horrible, as many of them had been there numerous times and donated a lot of the mementos.

Please keep my "boys" in your good thoughts. I wanted to pass on this news to someone who would appreciate the loss. Please keep in touch!

Best regards & take care,

Mari

Essayons

297th Combat Engineers WWII

"We clear the way!"

My friend Filip just added some items to his page. I wanted to place it here because one refers to my friend Don Burgett and the interview that OUR Reg conducted with him.

I was very honored when Filip emailed a couple of weeks ago and asked if he could gain permission to use the synopsis I had written in regards to Don's books, on his new page. Gee, sure I said, that would be great!

I happen to think it's nice when we can all work together to honor one of our vets. TEAMWORK!

http://www.ww2airborne.net/clancy/index_us.htm

From there you have to click 506th/101st, then Interview with Don Burgett...

Here's one that caught my attention this morning-

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236014,00.html

This is an insult to the entire human race. It' hard to decide which is worse...our insane extremist enemies or our insane fellow americans.

The great 86 year old lady that runs the Wyoming Veterans Museum in Casper told me several years ago that she was giving some middle schoolstudents a tour of the museum when one of the boys said " that hollocaust stuff never happened." She grabbed him by the collar and threw him out telling him to never come back . Mrs. Kating was the original head secretary for the Army Air Corps base .

Chris

Sent to me by Captain John Fallon. Impressive!

http://www.whc.net/rjones/USN/USN_team.html

Am placing this here since it is dedicated to the Marine Corps and therefore covers many wars and years.

My friend sent me these photos. Thanks Al!