Received this on June 2, 2005

I am looking for information on the 208th Combat Engineer unit during WW II. My late father-in-law was in it. I finally got in touch with Mr. Edward Stefanik in Pittsburg. He told me that they didn't have any unit history or web site. He also said that they had their last reunion about 3 years ago. My son is leaving for the Normandy reunion tonight and he was wanting some unit history. If you of any place that I could research I would appreciate you letting me know.

Thanks

Curtis James

Granbury, Texas

Photo used with permission. Thank you Peter Hendrikx. I added his site the other day.

Heroes of Margraten

This is my friend George Koskimaki of the 101st Airborne in May when he and a group went to Europe for the anniversary of the end of the war.

Attached Files

  George_at_Margraten.jpg (Size: 58.41 KB / Downloads: 0)

I dont know if I should have the alarm button on or not but when I got

up at 5 this morning there was a news thing on CNN that a suicide

bomber penetrated a check point at Baghdad Airport . First the news

said there were 7 Iraqs injured and the bomber was killed, but then I

saw on a different news program that there were 17 injured and they

didnt say who.. To confuse matters I got an email thta was sent at

00:46 ? which is I think 9 am over there. That is around the time the

news said this took place so I am just confused and scared. I am doing

my best ot do the no news is good news thing . So please keep my baby

boy in your prayers as well as the injured. Thanks love ya Cindy

I jst saw this article and it says 15 Iraq's so I hope there ias nothing to be alarmed about. I am not sure how I am going to get used to this

Received this letter this afternoon:

My name is Joe Corley. I am writing to share or see if you have any information about my Grandfather.

Harvey K. Corley

His discharge papers show that he served in the 2759th engineers, and we know he was a medic.

he was awarded the bronze star, and mid-eastern africa campaign, and europe campaign medal.

other than that we know nothing about his unit or were he served, he told us he was in france and

germany. the army informed us that any information that would have been available was lost in a fire

in St. Louis in 1972. I will be glad to share what i have with you, he is deceased know and we are

know trying to back track.

thanks

Dear Mrs. Chard:

I happened to come across your fine web site tonight while searching for

information on the 253rd Combat Engineers. Unfortunately, I can't find this

unit listed anywhere. I'd like to find some vets from that BN because I have

a 30 minute 8mm film of their tour of duty. The film was shot by one of the

vets during his time with the BN. I bought the film on ebay last year and

have transferred it to video and would like to give free copies to anyone

from that unit that I can locate.

Dr. Michael Brodhead at the USA CofE Office of History looked the unit up

and sent me the following information:

> The only information I could find on the 253rd Engineer Combat Battalion is

> from a reference work entitled Order of Battle, U. S. Army, World War II, by

> Shelby L. Stanton, p. 574; The battalion was formed 15 October 1943 at Camp

> Crowder, Missouri; sailed from the New York Port of Embarkation 31 October

> 1944, arriving in England 8 November 1944; arrived in France 26 December 1944;

> participated in the Alsace-Ardennes, Central Europe, and Rhineland campaigns;

> was at Ulm, Germany in August 1945; arrived in the U. S. at the New York Port

> of Embarkation 9 April 1946 and was inactivated there the following day.

The film begins with scenes at the camp where these men went through basic

training and then follows them on weekend passes at (I believe)

Hopkinsville, KY. It then shows camp scenes but I don't know which camp. If

the town was indeed, Hopkinsville, KY, then Camp Campbell, KY would make

sense.

Then, the film shows the men in Europe. Some scenes are at Ulm, Germany and

that fits with the description above. Other locations include the Danube

River, Heidelburg, and Paris, where the unit was getting ready to come home.

There are scenes of guarding German POW's, a crashed airplane, traveling in

convoys, and several small towns where they stopped for chow, etc. It's

actually one man's film of his buddies and their travels in WWII.

The seller I bought it from on ebay had no idea as to the original

photographer so the trail was cold right from the start. This isn't an

academy award winner but I'm sure any living vets of the 253rd Combat

Engineers would love to have a copy.

Any assistance you can provide about that unit would be a great help.

If you can find any information, I'll send you a copy.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Jim Herron

Email: hrvideo@mindspring.com

Address: 2016 N. Village Ave., Tampa, FL 33612

Phone: 813 932-3887