Take a moment to view this short clip. It's worth your while.

http://www.6thcorpsmusic.us/videos/Budweiser-Hero.wmv

This link on the M1 Garand, was sent to me by Jim Hennessey...

http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/m1rifle.html

Received a letter from a gentleman named Jim.

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Marion,

My Dad, James H. Holcombe, was a company commander and Bn Executive Officer in an Engineer Aviation Battalion in North Africa and Italy.

He died a few years ago and we have put together a flag case and memorial case with his medals. We would like to display his unit patch, but have no clue what it would be. We have looked at all of his old photos (he was career, finally retiring in 1967) and I don’t know if he ever wore a patch on his right arm.

Do you have any leads?

Thanks

Jim (1st Lt, VietNam)

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Well in the interim Jim was able to ascertain that his dad was in the 838rd. I contacted my buddy David Little, www.ixengineercommand.com, and he was able to come up with some info. Here's what David discovered this week.

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Hi Marion.

Finally had a chance to pull a little info

on the 838th EAB. It was an African-American unit but

it served in the MTO. Here are the dates I have ...

Formed 8 Jul 1942 at McDill Field, FL. Shipped out of

New York on 7 Feb 1943. Landed in North Africa 15 Feb

1943. Landed in Italy on 29 Sep 1944. Credited with

the North Apennines campaign (10 Sep 1944 - 4 Apr

1945). HQ was at Pisa, COs A and C were at Rosignano

and CO B was at Grosseto in Aug 1945. The unit

returned to New York on 10 Nov 1945.

My grandfather's unit, the 814th EAB, was in North

Africa, Sicily and Italy too but I don't have much on

other units in that theatre. I do have a photo of what

I believe are engineer officers in Africa but did not

find James Holcombe. I know several of the others were

battalion commanders.

If I run across anything else related to the 838th EAB

I'll let you know.

David

Statement of Charges.

An amusing incident, at least to me, was the Statement of Charges against Lt. Nathan White, a Regimental Staff Liaison Officer. White was older than the rest of us and had been a school teacher in civilian life in the state of Maine. He was a rather prissy individual and some thought him strange because he looked ridiculous in his circular stainless steel GI eyeglasses coupled with a large handlebar mustache, which he kept meticulously trimmed and waxed with the ends curled up. He was the junior officer on the Regimental Staff and the butt of jokes on those few occasions when jokes were acceptable. In addition to being a liaison officer, he became the Regimental Historian and edited the History of the Seventh Infantry in WWII.

During one of the training exercises for D Day Southern France, Lt. White was assigned as “loading officer†for a group of LCT.s taking aboard thirty-five ton Sherman tanks. The first LCT pulled up to the dock, bow first, and lowered its ramp onto the concrete at a twenty-degree angle. There was no convenient bollard to tie up to, so the Navy crew applied forward thrust to hold the LCT against the dock. Lt. White, in charge of loading, waved the first tank forward. When the tracks were half on the ramp and half on the dock, the climb proved too steep and the tank’s engine stalled. The driver restarted, shifted to a lower gear, raced the engine and let out the clutch. The thirty-five ton tank leaped forward, and with the rubber padded steel tracks gripping the concrete dock rather than the slick metal ramp, the tank pushed the LCT away from the dock, continued on, and sank in fifteen feet of water! Fortunately, all hatches were open and the tank crew members bobbed to the surface like so many corks.

The next day, Lt. White was served with a “Statement of Charges,†an Army form used to enforce the regulation which held a soldier personally responsible for the cost of any piece of government property lost, damaged or destroyed as a result of the soldier’s negligence or wilful neglect. The form read as follows: “Lt. White is held responsible, as loading officer, for the loss of one (1) Sherman tank due to his negligence during a loading exercise in the Bay of Naples, Italy. The tank is valued at $75,000. Lt White is hereby held liable for repayment of this sum to the government of the United States. Toward this end, 80% of all pay and allowances due or to become due will be withheld from said officer’s monthly pay until such time as this debt is satisfied.â€

Lt. White didn’t have to be a mathematical genius to figure out that eighty percent of $150 is $120 per month or $1440 per year and it would therefore take him 52 years to pay off this debt. Of course, he knew about Statements of Charges, but they were never used in combat. Soldiers routinely threw away government property; gas masks, ponchos, camouflage capes, mess kits, ammunition, leggings, helmet liners and none had ever been hit with a statement of charges in combat. But we weren’t in combat now! We were training in a rear area and high ranking sticklers for regulations routinely enforced chicken-shit rules in rear areas. Besides, this document was signed by the Regimental CO, a West Point full Colonel, a no-nonsense leader, fair but not known to make jokes or even to smile.

The story spread rapidly while Lt. White worried himself sick. After allowing a few days for the story to complete its rounds, the Colonel told White it was only a joke and the entire regiment had a morale boosting laugh at Lt. White’s expense! The butt of the joke was a member of the Regimental Staff, not a front line soldier, and he was an officer besides, which made the joke all the more enjoyable for the dogfaces. And the Colonel came out of it with recognition that he was a regular guy, a human being after all. The affair had a salutary effect on morale just when it was needed most, on the eve of a very dangerous amphibious assault landing.

Russ Cloer - 3_7_I_Recon

hi! every one boy what a great site to be part of i missed the last reuion and sorry to hear about the passing of a fellow member and vet. my dad was in the 148th combat eng. c o. c 1943-1945 he drove a jeep for a capt. he was awarded the soldier's medal for what i don't know i think he landed on omaha beach the 6th or 7th under gen hodges thanks for any help.

billw 412-683-6287 pittsburgh pa.