I am posting this for David.
Dear Mrs. Chard:
My father was in the 1286th. Engr. C. BN., and I have been trying to find
any information that I can for my Dad. He has a hard time trying to
remember things now as he is 87. I can not seem to find anything. Would you
have any information on the 1286th? They were formed May 12, 1944 at Camp
Rucker, Alabama and inactivated ion 5 Nov. 1945 at Camp Cambell, Kentucky.
Any information or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
David Dings
David:
Nice hearing from you. I will try my best to see what I can discover. In
the interim please check out our forum Research section. It offers ways to
aid you in your research. One of the best ways is contacting the Office of
History at the Army Corps of Engineers. Super people!
I will post this on the forum for you this morning too. Others may see it
and have info to share.
Sincerely,
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer WWII
www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com
David:
I hope you see this because I lost your email address as well as some others when I replaced my hard drive two weeks ago. Sigh! I did back-up and export my Outlook address book, but the danged file got corrupted. 
Luckily I had a previous export from Outlook, but alas it was two months old, so anything after it was lost.
I received this email from my friend Richard Horrell who runs a company that does research on WWII units. His site is listed on my Links Page and also in our Research Section. Here is an excerpt from his email.
"...Thank you for your newsletter. It is an excellent publication. Would you be so kind as to provide me with the e-mail address for David Dings, who's father was a member of the 1286th Eng. Cbt. Batt. I have quite a bit of facts about the unit...
Here is his web address:
http://www.ww2connections.com/pages/1/index.htm
Best of luck to you. 