BTW, loved how you addressed me in the above post. :-)
That was quite a reply and I can see why you are baffled. One of the problems seems to be that the images above refer to a company, but the 358th you are interested in, was an engineer regiment. Ah, the Army is sometimes a very confusing body. This is certainly not the first time that I've come across this problem, for I've seen situations where someone comes to me for assistance and I have to tell them that they have the WRONG unit.
I have worked with the 631st Engineers and some of their veterans, and they indeed did go to the Philippines.And as it states above, they were redesignated the 358th Engineer COMPANY a couple of years after the war. So this is NOT the unit you want to explore.
So let's get back to the 358th Engineer Regiment, who only served in Europe and ended their stint in Germany and returned home. Now it makes perfect sense that he had a Luger shipped home for him. It all comes together.
Also it was not unusual for a soldier to remain in Europe until fall of 1945, because many of the men (sometimes selected battalions or companies from units), stayed behind to help to help with reconstruction. For instance, my dad was with the 540th and his battalion (the 2833rd) didn't come home until November of 1945. They were the occupational army.
More in a minute...
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"