Good day,

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.

Thank you to everyone in advance,

Chris

Welcome to the forum. Yes, I too hope that some one will recognize the name and get in touch with you. That would be exciting!

Info on this unit is tough to come by. Here's a bit...

 

• Reorganized and redesignated 1 January 1922 as Company B, 103d Infantry, an element of the 43d Division (later redesignated as the 43d Infantry Division)
  
• Inducted into Federal service 24 February 1941 at Rumford
  
• Inactivated 1 November 1945 at Camp Stoneman, California
  
• 103d Infantry relieved 21 May 1946 from assignment to the 43d Infantry Division)
  

• World War II
  
• Guadalcanal
  
• New Guinea
  
• Northern Solomons
  
• Luzon (with arrowhead)
  

I strongly suggest that you get in touch with NARA in Maryland, to see if they have the unit records.

· National Archives - College Place, MD - This is how I obtained my father’s unit records. I hired a private researcher who painstakingly copied each document and mailed them to me. While this was not cheap, it was well worth the cost and effort for I gathered hundreds upon hundreds of daily journals, after-action reports, maps and more. Please read the page carefully for it is very detailed. It also explains how to arrange to copy the records yourself.