A truly tragic event occurred here in Michigan today. There was a devastating fire at the Yankee Airforce Museum. You can read more about it here. How very, very sad for all of us.

Yankee Airforce Musuem Fire

Addendum 10-22-04...

I should have added a very important fact the other day when I initially posted this. My mother and my husband's mother worked at the Willow Run plant building bombers during the war. Hail, hail to Rosie and her riveters. The great woman who held down the home front.

As some of you may know, one of my new friends, an historian, has lent me the book that I have been feverishly searching for, Overseas with the 540th Engineers. He is giving me the opportunity to scan and copy all the pages, so at least I will have a copy on the ol' computer. This will enable me upload the pages to our site. They are hundreds of photos and text to go along with them.

The book covers the 540th E-Men from their first steps on the shores of North Africa to their last days in Germany in 1945. It's a real treasure and hopefully someday I will find a copy for my collection. There are great pics of bridges being built, mines being diffused, roads being improved, landings in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Southern France, etc. There are also photos of each platoon and much, much more.

Hopefully I will be able to share these with you very soon. It is quite an undertaking to copy an entire book and then crop and improve each image before I upload them to the web, so please be patient. It will be worth the wait.

Max Schwartz is looking for any 1306th brothers in arms and their family members. He has written a book and it is available FREE OF CHARGE to members of the 1306th and their family members. You can visit his site at:

1306th Engineer General Service Regiment

The general public can also purchase the book. Please see site for details.

He'd love to hear from you.

Here's another one. Found this on a university site and contacted them. They wrote back that Mr. Hoch died earlier this year. If any family members see this, please contact me if you wish to tell your loved ones' WWII story.

Woodrow Hoch, '42 B.S. CChem, served with the Army Corps of Engineers 540th Amphibious Brigade in Africa, Italy, France, and Germany during World War II. He was decorated with the Purple Heart and Silver Star. In 1951, he founded Master Oil Products and served as its president until 1957, when he bought Viscosity Oil, merged the companies, and remained president. Until 1985, he led the company as Viscosity Oil became a major supplier of lubricant oils, rust inhibitors, calibration fluids, greases, industrial oils, and diesel engine oils. He sold Viscosity Oil to Tenneco Oil and Gas in 1985 and retired.

Found the info below that was listed on a genealogy site. Contacted the webmaster but he has no futher info on this man. Maybe someone from his family will see it and contact me in the future. You never know and it's always worth a shot.

Melborne "Mel" Henry Mouw was born on November 4, 1910 in Holland, Michigan, the son of Henry and Grace (DeWeerd) Mouw and died at age 89, on Friday, October 27, 2000. He worked at the Orin B. Hayes Oldsmobile dealership in sales and service for 31 years. Mel was a decorated Veteran of WW II, assigned to the 540th Engineers, serving with both the Third and Seventh Armies. He was awarded 7 Bronze Stars, and 1 Bronze Arrowhead. He served in Africa, Algeria-French Morocco, Sicily, Naples, Foggia Rome, Southern France, Rhineland and Central Europe as well as Anzio Beach. He was a member of the American Legion Post 475 and a lifetime member of the VFW. He was survived by his daughter Alice of Zion, Illinois, sons John of Dade City, Florida and Michael of Galesburg. Mel was buried in Mt. Everest Cemetery with full military graveside honors provided by American Legion Post 475 (an abbreviated transcription of his obituary from the Kalamazoo Gazette, contributed by Marie Mackey).