I am so happy for you. Super-sleuthing does pay off!

Well, first off, if they were willing to give you the number, then heck sweetie, go for it. It's not like you got the number off the black market. Guess the woman thought you were an honest soul and trusted you. Gee I am sitting here in anticipation, can't wait to hear where this takes you! I'm sure she will be delighted to hear from you. She will also respect the fact that you were apprehensive about doing so though. It shows respect for she and her family.

Bottom line, whatever you are comfortable with.

Ah, told you Michael was a great man. I just heard from him yesterday myself. I really admire him. Top notch in my book!

Three cheers to you for aggressively going ahead with your research.

Michael sent me some additional information on the 472nd. Here is what he sent me.

Dear Mr. Lambing,

In a volume entitled The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Japan, by Karl C. Dod, I found the following (pp. 212-213)

"Next was the matter of finding skilled mechanics. Repeated requests from the theaters for equipment repair units brought the word from Washington that none were available. Finally, on 10 November [1942], the 472d Engineer Maintenance Company landed at Noumea [New Caledonia], the sole unit of its kind to be sent to the far Pacific in 1942. Within a few days the men were swamped with work. Because their shop equipment was being sent on a later transport, they had to tackle the tremendous backlog of repairs with a few tools borrowed here and there. A month after reaching New Caledonia, the unit's commander wrote, 'Life is very busy over here, but very interesting, what with three-cylinder Southern Cross engines, Leeds-Fowler power units, five-cylinder Paxman-Ricardo diesel engines, 75-year-old French locomotives, Nippon brand cement mixers, [and] miscellaneous Japanese electrical apparatus . . . there is never a dull moment.'"

Mike Brodhead

So, I did contact the church today and got ahold of the secretary and left my contact information. She said that she was going to see Pam"s (Wanda's daughter) daughter and will forward my information. I a going to wait to see if anything comes from this approach. Then I will contact her directly. Thank you for the vote of confidence.

Good stuff from Michael. Ya, those type of units had their work cut out for them. As the book states, they were few and far between so never had a dull moment. There was always something for them to do and a backlog at that!

Glad that you made even more progress as far as contacting the family. I think you will have lots to talk about and I hope they will be able to copy a lot of the data that's been collected over the years. What a plus that both the husband and wife were so active with this unit's history. Bravo!

Marion,

Michael Brodhead has been very helpful, He is still emailing me infromation on both the units my great uncle was in. He has provided me with many other contacts and I am sifting through all of the information he has sent.

Just some related news. I have received a 41 page packet of information on my great uncles other unit, the 973rd. Every day I go to the mail box I can hardly wait to see if I have any new mail from the folks I have contacted. Its like christmas every day.

I think I have got the research bug. Thank you for all of the encouragement, this has become a passion for me.

Spencer Lambing

Hillsboro, OR

Now you're starting to sound like me. Always checking email and snail-mail all the time. I just love getting letters and packages in the mail.

Imagine how I felt when I received a box from my private researcher two days ago. It contained over 750 pages from NARA. I now have daily journals, after-action reports, etc. from several periods during the war and this is only a THIRD of the documents. This stuff is just awesome!

Continued success. I have a feeling we will be high-fiving each other over and over again during the next few months!

Just this morning I have received three emails for links to information about both the 973rd and the 472nd. I am still finding it difficult to find much information about the 472nd. Every time I email one of the contacts about the 973rd I add the 472nd. All of the people are helpful and they look but I they seem to be having trouble finding any information eigter.

Marion,

I just received some great information in the mail today from Dr. Larry Roberts, who is a historian with the U.S. Army Engineer School. He has tracked down some unit "Historical Data" for the 472nd. It has when the unit was formed, were it was originated, when it moved from place to place with dates and all. I have received simular information about the 973rd, so I am able to track my great uncles movements from the Paciifc to the European theater.

They have used a lot of abbreviations that I don't understand, maybe there is someone out there that might be able to interpret some of the abbreviations for me.

I would like to make this available on line for anyone to read but how do I go about doing this?

First off it's wonderful to hear about your successes!

Secondly, if you want to send me a list of the abbreviations, or simply type them in here, we can help you with the JARGON!

As far as posting the information, it would probably be easier for me to create an actual page for your great uncle. We can also display info here too if you wish.

You will have to scan the information to a file (it's better to create separate files). I usually scan docs and then save them as JPEG's or PDF's. If you need help, just send me an email and I'll try and advise you on how to proceed.

Marion,

Just today I have scanned them into a pdf format. I have these documents on cd. Can you use this format?