344th or 334th Engineers?

[Walt's Daughter]

Lisa has found more info in the interim:

 

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Hello,

 

I wrote to you sometime ago trying to find out information about my fathers service in the corp. of engineers. You were very helpful but I was unable to provide you with any good viable information so I had to do some more digging through paperwork and request my fathers full file from the VA. Armed with my new info I have some more questions I'm hoping you can help me with.

 

My father paperwork say's that he was in the 344th Engineer Regiment, his captain in 1942 was a James Goodson. He received his discharge signed by a Colonel Ralph Cammeron.

 

My father's service medals were the National Defense Medal and Service Ribbon, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and Service Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, and Service Ribbon. In a box I found a blue round patch with a white numeral 6 in the middle. I found another patch that has a red background with a blue castle looking thing in it and a large letter A with the number 5 underneath it. He has these blue triangles with a yellow step ladder like thing and a red triangle in the middle of that. He then has patches that were sewn on to his uniform which have 5 gold braided stripes. I cannot find out anything on these patches to help me figure out any of the things you know regarding divisions and regiments etc.

 

I've searched the US Army web site and all I can figure out is what his ribbons stand for and what his rank was from his pin which was 2 LT. What I want to be able to figure out is what division he was with and what battalion then at least I can know what to read to find out about the battles he was in and why he had such a hard time in Italy. Something happened to him in Italy that deeply effected him and he would not speak about it but he did not come back from the war the same man that left and he suffered from post traumatic stress related issues all his life. I want to know where he was in Italy and why the battles there were so horrific so I can better understand what he went through.

 

I want to honor my father's service to our country by having his ashes buried with the rank he attained on his headstone not the one that the VA has listed on his paperwork. Just because they had a fire that destroyed their records is not my problem and if I have to write the president about it I will. I can prove my dad was a 2nd LT. not warrant officer and he should be able to have that on his headstone.

 

OK I have rambled on enough, thanks for reading my ranting. I hope you can help guide me to some answers, I really am grateful for all of your help!

 

Sincerely,

Lisa Ritter