I am currently serving as Captain with the U.S. Army and would like to try and build some of my family's military history ties.
My grandfather was Gust Mihal, from Dubuque, Iowa, who commanded the 1035th Engineer detachment in France and the Pacific in WW2. I have not been able to find much information on this elusive unit, and pops never spoke about the war. After he passed, we found a Silver Star in a drawer in his basement, but have been unable to get the citation since.
After the war he achieved the rank of Colonel in the reserves and spent twenty years teaching at the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir from 1957-1977.
I was curious if anyone knew him, or at least had family that knew him, or any of his many brothers and cousins that fought in the war (Mihals were at Bastogne and pretty much all over the European theater). It's a long shot, I know, but if anyone knew what he did during the war I would love to know.
I am trying to locate the Combat Aviation Engineer Unit that built the airfields in the Desert Training Center or CAMA during WW2. I am especially interested in any that may have served in Arizona from 1942-1944. The unit I am most interested in built the airfield at Camp Laguna . The airfield was designated Laguna Army Airfield (LAAF). Any assistance or guidance would be appreciated.
Yours,
Vincent Lacey
Dear Vincent:
First off I profusely apologize for never replying to your email. Somehow it got lost in the shuffle and I came upon it this morning (how appropriate on Memorial Day?!).
My first suggestion is to try and contact David Little (a friend of mine), who has an extensive site regarding Aviation Engineers. Here's his site:
I'm Matt, combats engineer vet from 1996-2002, doing research on my grandfather who I never knew but have tons of photos, some not labeled, from the ETO. He was a comms T4 in the 33rd reconnaissance squadron, 20th armored division, 3rd Army.
It has proved quite a Challenge to ID some of these places, at the time my grandad was in Europe, February thru July 1945, his unit was splintered and pieces attached to other units, so it can be hard to know where he went based on official narratives.
Mom not here to crowdsource or just post and hope others do the work, but I am relatively new at this sort of research. Any tips would be appreciated.
Hello everyone I am the Grandson of a member of Co.A of the 257th Combat Engineer Battalion. Any info that I can find on him would be greatly appreciated. I have his Discharge and Qualification records. I am looking for any info related to his time (7 months) as an engineer. His uniform was stolen when he returned home so I have no idea what his uniform would have had on it. (patches or insignias) His personnel records were destroyed in the fire so this is what I have. I also know that he was AAF before becoming an engineer based on his photo album.
