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Received this letter today:

Rocky Montez
sends the following message:


Dear Sir, I am desperately trying to find any information regarding my Grandfather who served the war , but however was taken from us still in 1950 I can not find his ECB anywhere ...he was with the 145th Engineer Combat Battalion Company A under Patton 3rd Army if you can help me at all I would be so greatly appreciated his name was Stg. Adam G Martinez with the 145th ECB


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Hello Rocky:

Sure can! Ask and ye shall receive! Here's a start:


http://www.kilroywashere.org/001-Pages/And...AndyMiller.html

http://louisianabulldog.tripod.com/35thengineerbattalion/

http://www.criba.be/fr/stories/detail/first-on-the-line-35th-engineer-combat-bn-159-1




I often include obit links when doing my research, for sometimes people have family members listed within, and have gotten answers. One thing I've found; you never know where your next flash of info will appear!


http://www.frankstoncitizen.com/julyobits02.html



While this one won't give you any info on the 145th , it is an interesting article about a man who was. It is known as the Easter Massacre in Washington State.

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?Displ...mp;file_id=8824


For further information, please see my research suggestions on my forum:

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/eng...hp?showtopic=23

Two of the BEST sources are the Army Corps of Engineers, Office of History, and NARA in Maryland.

I hope this got you off to a good start. Let me know what transpires, and if I can offer more assistance.

Warmly,
Marion

Received this letter yesterday.

Dear Mrs. Chard:

 

For Duplin County, North Carolina, I am researching a book that will contain biographies and photographs (when available) of the men from our county who died in World War II. A granite monument also will be installed on the Court House grounds, containing each man’s name, hometown, rank/rate and branch of service, dates of birth and death, and place/manner of death (where available).

 

One of these men is PFC Pender Surcy (AKA Surcey), U.S. Army, who was a member of the 145^th Engineer Combat Battalion. We know that he was killed in France on 12 August 1944, and that he is buried in the Brittany American Cemetery at St. James (Manche), France.

 

I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide any information on this man or his unit, and what it was doing on 12 August 1944. If you do not have this information, I would greatly appreciate it if you would recommend possible sources.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Charles M. Ingram (CAPT, JAGC, USNR, Retired)

Ingram & Ingram, Attorneys

Kenansville, NC (between Ft. Bragg and Camp Lejeune)

 

P.S. My wife’s uncle – who will be 92 on the 24^th, and who is in GREAT shape – was in the combat engineers in France during WWII. I do not know the number or name of his unit, but I will ask him. I also would like to do some research on him.

 

Pender Surcy

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=56349292

http://www.bigonville.info/Bigonville_in_World_War_II/145ECB.html

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/voces/no-search/template-stories-indiv-print.html?work_urn=urn%3Autlol%3Awwlatin.574&work_title=Pe%C3%B1a%2C+Placido

Also found this brief unit history and am providing a link:

35th Engineer Regiment - 145th Eng Bn.pdf

Note:

Some may be confused by the references to the 35th Engineer Regiment. The 35th became 1122d Engineer Combat Group, and its 1st and 2nd Battalions became the 35th and 145th Engineer Combat Battalions, respectively. This occurred in 1945, when many of the engineer units were restructured.

Same thing happened to my dad's unit. The 540th Engineer Regiment became the 540th Engineer Combat Group and the 1st bn became the 2832nd. The 2nd Bn became the 2833rd.

That's one thing I never understood about the Army - its need to have such a complicated number system for units. I suppose it come from being so darn large, but compared to the Marines, it is hardly understandable. In the USMC (with the exception of the Air Wings) things are very logical:

Location MEF Division Regiments Tank Bn Arty Rgmt MEUs
California I 1st 1st, 5th, 7th 1st 11th 11th, 13th, 15th
Camp Lejeune II 2nd 2nd, 6th, 8th 2nd 10th 22nd, 24th, 26th
Okinawa III 3rd 3rd None 12th 31st

Now III MEF is kind of different from the other two because of the fact that we are over here in Japan and Hawaii and don't have as much space to spread out. The USMC does not have congressional authorization to be at 3 full MEF strength, in any case. But you can see the logic to everything. The Air Wing numbers are reversed from what the divisions are:

Cali 3rd Marine Air Wing (MAW)
Lejeune 2nd MAW
Oki 1st MAW (my current home)

And when the USMC expanded during WWII - we just added the 4th, 5th, and 6th Marine Divisions. See? Easy peasy.

Ya, I have never understood that either. Way too complicated. And boy, trying to teach newbies about the army units during WWII. Whew, that's a job in and of itself. Then trying to explain why they changed engineer unit names in 1945, is a whole other ball game. Yes, will have to admit, the Marines did a much better job. Oh how logical!