838th Aviation Engineers

[Walt's Daughter]

Received a letter from a gentleman named Jim.

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Marion,

 

My Dad, James H. Holcombe, was a company commander and Bn Executive Officer in an Engineer Aviation Battalion in North Africa and Italy.

 

He died a few years ago and we have put together a flag case and memorial case with his medals. We would like to display his unit patch, but have no clue what it would be. We have looked at all of his old photos (he was career, finally retiring in 1967) and I don’t know if he ever wore a patch on his right arm.

 

Do you have any leads?

 

Thanks

 

Jim (1st Lt, VietNam)

 

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Well in the interim Jim was able to ascertain that his dad was in the 838rd. I contacted my buddy David Little, www.ixengineercommand.com, and he was able to come up with some info. Here's what David discovered this week.

 

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Hi Marion.

 

Finally had a chance to pull a little info

on the 838th EAB. It was an African-American unit but

it served in the MTO. Here are the dates I have ...

 

Formed 8 Jul 1942 at McDill Field, FL. Shipped out of

New York on 7 Feb 1943. Landed in North Africa 15 Feb

1943. Landed in Italy on 29 Sep 1944. Credited with

the North Apennines campaign (10 Sep 1944 - 4 Apr

1945). HQ was at Pisa, COs A and C were at Rosignano

and CO B was at Grosseto in Aug 1945. The unit

returned to New York on 10 Nov 1945.

 

My grandfather's unit, the 814th EAB, was in North

Africa, Sicily and Italy too but I don't have much on

other units in that theatre. I do have a photo of what

I believe are engineer officers in Africa but did not

find James Holcombe. I know several of the others were

battalion commanders.

 

If I run across anything else related to the 838th EAB

I'll let you know.

 

David