The following is correspondence from Don Jr., a new person and member who found our site. I am posting his info here for you to read, and hope Don will join in and continue. Lots of interesting stuff.
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Dear Admin-
You asked for a reply, here it is. I'm not sure about the VI corps, but my dad was on active duty when the war hit in '41. He was a buck pvt. and promoted to sgt. while on Ascension Is. while building the airbase there in early '42, then to staff, tech and 1st going thru Belgian Congo and on to Algeria. He was shot in the hand in North Africa, and was sent home in 1943 and to OCS. Shortly after his return to England in '44, he landed on Omaha with the 38th Engineers (his outfit thru Africa) and into France and Germany. When his discharge finally came in '46 he was a 1st Lt.
An uncle I never knew, Sgt. Frank Cassell , was killed near St. Lo on June 19th, 1944 and is buried in the cemetery at Colleville-Sur-Mer. He was dad's brother in law and was attached to the 175th infantry of the 29th division.
Another uncle spent his time also with the 38th Engineers, and my brother and I were lucky enough to be able to take him down to the memorial in DC before he passed away 2 years ago.
I am a Navy vet, serving on an FBM submarine from '67- '73. My brother Jim was with ASA and spent two tours in Korea from '68- '72, and my nephew just returned yesterday to Pendleton from his second tour in Iraq.
Sorry, no SPAM- Pop wouldn't allow any in the house when I was growing up because he hated the thought of having to eat any more of it. It was too much of his diet from 1942-1946. He said it "was the ham that couldn't pass it's physical."
I sure don't know if this is what you're hunting for, but I'm kind of interested in where he and Uncle Larry actually traveled, and it would be interesting to find out how Uncle Frank gave his life.
Regards,
Don Jr.=========
Don's second letter to me:
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Hi, Marion-
Just want to fire off a quick reply before I head out to Kansas for a few days.
The 38th from what I can or have dug up, did land on Omaha on 10 June 1944. It was apparently part of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade, and was now the 38th Engr General Services Regt.
Now for some fun. I haven't been able to find much on the N, Africa travels- yet. But if you go to http://www.heritage.org.ac/hs901.htm you should get an Ascension Is. homepage. There is a pretty good history of the island under Avis, parts 10, 11,12, & 13. There are several websites mentioning the airbase if you pull up Ascension Island that have segments regarding Wideawake Airbase, as well as some really good pictures under war vets and the history sections. One site also mentions the send off of the 38th to Congo after the airbase was completed. These sections also verify the regt was then the 38th Combat Engineer Regiment when they landed in March 1942. This also had to be one of the first Engr deployments of the war- I can't imagine the Army getting a regiment equipped, loaded and deployed to an assignment much quicker than 3 months from Pearl Harbor with everything else they had on the table.
There's also a short blurb in "Ascension Island Government" under "about Ascension'.
I also found a neat thing, WideawakeNews (WWII). Also look at Ascension Is., NASA base. These sites are pretty interesting. One mentioned the defense aircraft dispatched to protect the base as B-25's and P-39's. When I was a kid, Pop bought me a P-39 flying plane. He did tell me that these were the type he assembled while on Ascension. So, the engineers who built the base did a lot more than move dirt. One of the sites also mentions the shortage of rations, and the dump. This was Pop's first experience with Spam, of course followed for the next four years. He used to talk about the fresh eggs they had. They'd go out on the beach and raid sea turtle nests and occasionally caught an unsuspecting sea turtle which made a delectable meal. PETA and Greenpeace and Cousteau would have a hissy fit if they did that today. One of the supplies they had plenty of was dynamite and grenades. They'd take a boat out, lob in stick of dynamite or a grenade and have a fish fry with the fish that floated up to the surface shortly thereafter.
You may be able to download the pictures and repost them on the VI site. There was also another site I got into about the 38th reunion on Ascension. They dedicated a monument, and there were a few pictures of the reunion and island war pictures from several of the men. Uncle Larry is in the dedication pictures, front row right with a camera. I've met with some of these men, but they quit holding reunions about five years ago because most of them are in their 90's, and there are only a few left.
By the way, the Wideawake name comes from the boobies they had to chase of the area where the airbase was built. It was a rather large nesting ground and the birds relocated to another part of the island. The regiment adopted the nickname of the "Wideawakes" and carried it throughout the war.
Well that's it for now. I'll be back in about two weeks. Yak with you then.
Regards-
Don
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"