Enlisted and was sent to Ft. Belvoir in Combat Engs. Near end of training was transferred to Advanced Inf. training at Camp Howze for 6 weeks along with the rest of the group as Inf. casualty replacements. In France was put in the 3rd Bn 7th Inf Reg

3rd Inf Div and went on through Germany and into Austria as a dogface PFC. Went

overseas onthe Queen Mary I believe, and returned in Apr. '46 on the La Crosse Victory

ship,. when my rotation points came up for discharge. Was discharged on May 6 "46.

Enlistment then (or being drafted) was for the duration of hostilities plus 6 months?)

I still keep in contact with some aquaintences from the 7th Inf Reg. and others from

ww 2 that post on www.military . com WW 2 forum. Right now there are 4 of us on

there that served in combat in ww 2.

HEY all: The HISTORY Channel is showing the Engineers program again right now MONDAY MORNING 1-10-05, 9:00 AM EST. Turn it on and learn!

Guess it's a good day for the History Channel. Hey do they ever have a BAD day? Anyway a lot of good shows that continue today about WWII. I've seen some footage today that I hadn't seen before and I have to admit that that's rare.

Dear vets, families, friends and colleagues (in other words my extended VI Corps family):

I've been doing a bit of thinking lately about reunions or the lack of them. As far as VI Corps is concerned, the 540th had their last reunion two years ago and the 36th had to cancel theirs due to lack of registration this past October. I was revved up and ready to meet all the great vets from the 36th Combat Engineers, when I got the tearful email from Capt John Fallon; the reunion had been called off. Sigh!

I received another letter from John Fallon this week and I guess they are hoping to have a "scaled-down" version later this year. That's when the light bulb went off in my head. I thought, why not try and combine the reunions? I don't know, it's a thought. Maybe have a regular VI Corps reunion and have everyone attend. It might work.

Then I got to thinking some more. If not this year, maybe we could have an extended VI Corps reunion. It would be a great way to meet all the people that I have been corresponding with over the last 9 months or so. This of course would include the VI Corps Engineers, engineers from other regiments, their interested families, other WWII vets, webmasters, historians and other friends. I know some of you are already attending your own reunions, so you might not be interested, but it might be something to consider for others.

I would like to hear your thoughts, suggestions, etc. Wouldn't it be wonderful if some of us could actually meet in person? It's not impossible, but would take some planning. A fine way to carry on the tradition of our fathers and grandfathers and the vets we so admire.

Looking forward to hearing from you and a Happy New Year to all. As the engineers say, Essayons (let's try!)

I tried for months to get my Korean occupation medals. I received all my medal except 1945 occupation Korea medal. They said there was no Korean medal. I then sent my army tiime and occupation time to my U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow

two weerks ago and to-day received the Korean Occupation medal and Ribbon.

Here are dates for WW2 Occupation Duty.

Army of Occupation Medal- authorized 1946

This medal resembles the WW1 Occupation medal. It was awarded for 30 consecutive days at a

normal post of duty while assigned to any of the following:

Army of occupation of Germany: 9 May 45-

Army of occupation of Austria: 9 May 45-27 July 55

Army of occupation of Berlin: 9 May 45- 2 Oct 1990

Army of occupation of Italy: 9 May 45-15 Sept. 47

Army of occupation of Japan: 3 sept. 45-27 April 1952

Army of occupation of Korea: 3 Sept 45-29 June 49.

Art

Received this today from Ken. There is also an attachment that shows the planned itinerary for the commeration as stands today.

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Happy New Year to all.

Over the holiday period our committee has worked hard on advancing our plans and getting the word out.

We have a conference call for our committee to go over next steps on Wednesday evening at 6PM EST. Call into 914-381-5353 x267. If you would like to participate in the call please respond back by email or phone. We can certainly use more volunteers if any one has time to help out. Attached is our latest updated plan document.

Over the past month we have been communicating with county, state, and national levels of the American Legion. We have also identified over 150 veteran’s groups around the country to invite to participate. We have found contact information for many associations representing Army divisions and regiments, Navy ships, and Air Force bomber and fighter wings which served in Italy during WWII. Several have conducted similar trips to Europe to visit sites they passed through in WWII and to visit the cemeteries where their comrades are at rest. For example, outstanding work has been done by the Battle of the Bulge Veterans Association and the Anzio Beachhead Association.

I am also very pleased to mention that a very fine community choral group from Pelham, the Pelham Larks, has expressed interest in making the trip to Italy and providing patriotic music for the ceremonies.

We have also been looking very closely at finding ways to lower travel cost for those who are interested in joining us. I appreciate the efforts of Post 50 member Frank Barbieri and Harriet Balter of Rich World Wide Travel.

It has been great to hear from veterans like Ben Palmer from the 36th Division who expressed appreciation for what we are trying to do. Ben has a great book on his experiences going first into Italy then into southern France. I visited Sunday with 10th Mt. Division member Frank Carafa who is building strength and feeling better day by day after a hospital stay in the fall.

With less than 120 days left to departing for Italy, we are looking forward to going over our plans this month with the WWII 60th Commemorative Committee in Washington and representatives of the American Battle Monuments Commission both in DC and at the embassy in Rome. We see the ceremonies at Nettuno and Florence being very similar to American Legion Memorial Day ceremonies held in thousands of villages and cities across the country. We really appreciate the support provided to us by the hard working staffs of the WWII 60th CC, the ABMC, and the embassy staff in Rome. They do a great job every day looking after the needs of military members and veterans.

I received a nice response last week from Col. David Hackworth who many of you I am sure have heard on Imus and many other news outlets always in support of the average soldier or military member. The Col. mentioned he is has a health challenge which precludes traveling with us to Italy in May and I want to extend our best wishes for a complete recovery. His website information is found below but I want to highlight the memorable quote he passed along:

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly Proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their Nation".

George Washington

Thank you Col. Hackworth and to all on this distribution for your support of our project.

Ken

Kenneth G. Kraetzer

Sons of American legion

American Legion Post 50

Pelham NY

Vice President

CBSI

550 Mamaroneck Avenue, Harrison, New York 10528 USA

914-381-5353