Alaska                      
                            
                                                                  

                 Ingenio Nostro Movent .................."By Our Ingenuity We Move"                   

Welcome ....To The 42nd Engineer Battalion Construction....Alaska

                                                                           Former Members//Contacts:
                                             Jerry Justus     jjustus@asu.edu
                                             Bill  Bosch  51 - 53   bela1@earthlink.net        
                                            Mike Limoges   194    rlim557@yahoo.com
                                            James Walters 1947   Walters610@aol.com

This web site is Viet Nam Vet Friendly !

  On 10 September 1955 the 42nd Engineer Battalion Construction's
colors and Guidon were presented during the last parade of the year
by MG. James F. Collins, CG. USARAL to LTC. John Schwartz,
CO. of the 271st Engineer Battalion.
   The ceremony was held on the parade grounds at FT. Richardson
Alaska, to commemorate the redesignation of the 42nd
Engineer Battalion Construction to the 271st Engineer Battalion. 

  The 42nd Engineer Battalion (Construction) was attached to Alaska Command at Fort Richardson, close to Anchorage during the 50's.
   Its various missions were to build the early warning system also known as the DEW line,and to build radar tracking triple "AAA" sites.
  We also did Arctic construction jobs in Nome and Point Barrow as well as on post at Fort Richardson.
  As information about the 42nd Engineer Battalion Construction Alaska comes in the information will be posted on the web page.
  If you have any information on the history of the 42nd Engineer Battalion (Construction) or were a member of the 42nd please contact me by email at the Mail Box below.

  Jerry

From: Walters610@aol.com [mailto:Walters610@aol.com]
To: jjustus@asu.edu
Subject: Re: 42nd Engineers

The Battalion was on Okinawa in W.W.II and was designated the 1778th
Engineer
Construction Battalion.  After the war ended, the Battalion was sent to
Korea
as part of the 24th Corps, which was made up mainly of the 6th and 7th
Infantry Divisions.  U. S. Forces occupied South Korea and the North was
occupied by Russian forces.  The 7th Division was in the Seoul area, while
the 6th Division was in and around Pusan.

The Battalion, that is H & S Co. A Co. and C Co. were sent to Yong Dong Po,
a
suburb of Seoul.  B Co. was detached and sent to Pusan.  Shortly after
arriving in Korea, the Battalion was redesignated the 42nd Engineer
Construction Battalion.  We also had a separate Engineer Dump Truck Company
attached to us.

The Battalion, as part of an Engineer Group was involved in may projects
including road building, improvements to Kimpo Air Base and other
improvements to military facililties in and around the Seoul area.

I was in A Co., and we were involved mainly in construction of new housing
for U.S. personnel, and maintenance of Japanese Army facilities which had
been taken over by U.S. Army units.

I left the unit for the States in June of 1947 and had no further contact.

James Walters

A letter from.. Jim Wilson LTC, USAR-Ret.

Sir:

My late father, then-Major Gleason Woodrow (Woody) Wilson, was XO of the
42nd/271st under LTC John (Jack) Schwartz @ Ft. Rich from late 1954 until
early summer, 1956.
He entered service from Maine prior to W.W.II, was commissioned though
Engineer OCS, & retired from active service as a LTC, AUS in 1963. He died in
1998 & is buried in Arlington..

I was a dependent (and young) at the time of the Alaskan assignment. Vaguely
remember the great Division reflagging/rotation exchange in 1955 as well as a
nuclear evacuation exercise of the same summer.
What I do more vividly remember were eating really old K-Rats when going
salmon fishing and the large number of well-maintained defensive bunkers that
were in the hills surrounding Ft. Rich.
The latter were an interesting place for a kid to play. Hey, there was only
a very limited no. of TV hours in those days...and any non-local programs
were on film sent up from the Lower 48.

My father had also commanded an amphibious engineer company at Omaha in 1944
(Co. B. 348th Engineers, 5th Engineer Special Bde.) and other engineer units
crossing France-Belgium-Germany. He was in Occupied Germany until December,
1945.

He also was shoved into Korea from Occupied Japan with the 14th Engineers in
June/July,1950 and did a lot of "traveling" during that 1st year of the
Korean War. His last active duty engineer assignment was with the 937th
Engineers, Ft. Campbell, KY. from 1958-60.

In short, he served in a number of unfriendly places during his career.

Regards,
Jim Wilson
LTC, USAR-Ret.

I am trying to determine if you may have known my father.  He was Corporal Floyd R. Tenney and was the company clerk for the detachment of the company which was stationed in Pusan during the Korean War.  Any information you may be able to provide on the unit would be very much appreciated. 

Photos from the 42nd.    

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23-Sep-2005 17:28:36