You may have caught a comment or two on other posts, but I wanted to tell everyone about my latest (and last) trip on the MEU. We have been at sea for about a month now and have spent the time do exercise in the vicinity of Okinawa. The first two weeks was "get back together with the Navy" training called Amphibious Integration Training (AIT). We normally don't get that much AIT in the 31st MEU, but we were lucky to get it this time. Sometimes it's two days of some basic functions - not even ops - and then it's off to do our big exercise. If you are wondering, some of those "basic funcitons" are "splash and recoveries" when we launch the Combat Rubber Raiding Crafts (Little rubber boats - CRRCs) or the AMTRACKs. Another basic function is something called "Call-aways". This is when an an element of the MEU is called to be on "alert". Basically, elements that you have that are subject to be called to board aircraft or landing craft are things like the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel (TRAP - think Scott O'Grady), a reinforcing element (Bald Eagle - company reinforcement, Sparrow-hawk - platoon reinforcement), or a mass casulaty team (Nightengale). During some missions you have one or more of those on alert. Depending on the likelyhood of needing them, you may have them on Alert 120 or Alert 60, the number indicating the reaction time from call to launch. This is more complex then you might think. Once you call one of those groups to be on alert, they have to have their full kit, weapon issued, ammo issued, and get staged by serials for embark on what type of craft (normally aircraft) is available. They also need to know where to go and that isn't as easy as it would seem - especially if it is your first time on an Amphib (as in, amphibious ship). Alert 120 means they can be hanging out in the berthing and Alert 60 means they need to be "on the ramp" and they have to know that, too. I take the time to explain that because it is not something people would ever think about being something to even do, let alone rehearse.
So far we haven't done anything new necessarily so I have not been taking many pictures. That is soon to change.
In a couple of days, we are going to transfer to the USS Denver. This is because for the exercise we are doing, we are being subsummed into a larger unit. We are going to go from being a footloose and fancy-free MEU to being the Ground Combat Element (GCE) for a MEB. A MEB is like a MEU but it is based around a infantry regimental landing team (RLT) whereas a MEU is based around a battalion landing team (BLT). So that higher headquarters is kicking us out of the USS Bonhomme Richard (BHR) and we are having to displace to LSD 9 - the venerable USS Denver. The fact that it participated in Operation Frequent Wind (the evacuation of Viet Nam in 1975) when the ship was 7 years old should give you an idea of how long in the tooth the old gal is. As a matter of fact, she is the oldest ship still in use by the Navy. This is reflected in the fact that they generally don't spend a whole lot of dollars fixer her very often. Of course, as the commo, I still need to be able to get comm up - it's just going to be a challenge.
After that we go to Korea to participate in the exercise that is irking the North Koreans so much. I'll take lots of pictures there.
Anyway, I'm outta here - got a meeting to get to. Here's a pic of me in one of the Navy's MH-60 helicopters (the Navy version of the Black Hawk).
Has anyone stumbled across any information about this unit? Some of the 284th was moved to them after the war. It appears that they specifically went to the 2nd Bn.
Has anyone stumbled across any information about this unit? Some of the 284th was moved to them after the war to work on pipelines and other various tasks.
Received this email from Peggy. Below that I will list my findings as I discover more info.
My father-in-law was in the Army 527th Pontoons and was an engineer. I have photos of some of his experiences in the war. He was Atu, Alaska, North Africa, Battle of the Bulge, Italy, France. He told of General Patton riding up in a jeep and growling for them to hurry up and finish a bridge. Before the war he was a logger so he was trained to make lumber which they used to make bridges that they blew up after they were crossed.
Do you know how I can find more information on the actions of the 527th during WWII?
Peggy ONeill
Here is an excerpt from a book found at OSU's online books - page 327 from The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge
...defending Bastogne, which by this time were cut off from the rest of the corps. The outposts of the corps at Recogne (held by the 7th Tank Destroyer Group) and at Vaux-lez-Rosieres (defended by a scratch force from the 28th Division, reinforced by the 527th Engineer Light Pontoon Company) thus far had escaped the attention of an enemy moving west, not southwest. General Middleton was concerned about his open left flank and as his engineers came back ordered a barrier line formed along the Semois River. On the VIII Corps right, in the area south of Bastogne, reinforcements from the Third Army were concentrating under the command of the III Corps. The VIII Corps tactical air command post, which had been moved to Florenville on the 21st, continued to receive rumors and half-true reports of German forces turning southwest against its front, but it was fairly clear that the main threat was past.
To meet the German forces scouting and probing along the corps sector General Middleton organized a counter-reconnaissance screen. Behind this were collected stragglers and strays, many of whom had crossed the French border and got as far as Sedan. What was left of the corps artillery, mainly the 402d Field Artillery Group, assembled for tactical control and re-equipment. Other field artillery battalions, as well as tank destroyer battalions, engineer regiments, and the like, were arriving to reinforce the corps and help make good its losses. New infantry formations were on the way to restore the striking power of the corps and the Third Army commander already was planning the employmenton the offensive-of a revitalized VIII Corps.
There remained one more battle to be fought by the residue of General Cota's command, gathered around the outpost position at Vaux-lezRosieres on the Bastogne-Neufchateau road. During the night of 21 December some two hundred survivors of the 110th Infantry fight at Wiltz reached the 28th Division command post. Those who could be provided with clothes and weapons were put back into the line. Cota had in addition the engineer light pontoon company, retained as riflemen over the protests of the corps engineer, a few howitzers sited as single pieces around the village perimeter, and a platoon of self-propelled 76-mm. tank destroyers from the 602d Tank Destroyer Battalion, which had just come up from the Third Army. While the stragglers were being organized, about 0800 on the 22d, German shells commenced to burst over the perimeter. Enemy riflemen opened fire and an incautious light tank poked its nose into range of an American tank destroyer, which destroyed it. One prisoner was taken before this first flurry ended, a rifleman from the 5th Parachute Division.
The 5th Parachute Division, it will be recalled, had the mission of extending westward the cordon which the Seventh Army was to erect to forestall American counterattack against the south flank of the Fifth Panzer Army. The terminus of this extension was intended as the line Sibret-Vaux-lez-Rosieres-Martelange, at which point the 5th Parachute Division would go over to the defense. Colonel Heilmann's troops had taken Martelange, the eastern anchor for this projected line, late on the 21st while small detachments reconnoitered to the west; it was one of...
