Photo page 12 of 14 for
97th Engineer Battalion (Construction)
Photos from Vassincourt—early 1958-1960
PHOTOS BY SP5 LARRY LYNN CASTLEMAN (MAJ, USA, Retired), COMPANY A, 1958—60:
PHOTOS BY PFC CREED MEKOLITES (E–7, USAF, Retired), COMPANY A, 1957–60:
“I think the bridge school was at Toul, France. I was a structural steel specialist and also worked on the water point, keeping the towers full and and sanitary for a while. Mostly, we did pick and shovel work. We also went to pipeline school in Nancy, France.
The reason I look so mean [in the first photo of Cree] is that we had a lot of conflict going on in the unit. That was resolved by 1960. One conflict was that on Sunday you had to dress up for all 3 meals. The whole unit resolved that issue—we just didn't eat at the mess hall on Sundays. So, the IG came down and said that any dress was allowed but shower shoes. For this, they made a vow to never promote me. I was PFC for or 2 years, 4 months and 15 days.
PVT William H. James was the name of the guy I was with in the pictures. He also stayed a PFC. I went on to re-up, changed jobs to a 105-155 howitzers crewman, got out and went into the air force and retired as an E–7 in 1979. Greed” [edited by DMR]
PHOTOS BY ED PATOKA, 1962—63:
These are probably some of the last photo of James L. "Jim" Gese taken while he was stationed in France. Jim died in 1965 (see obituary section), after returning home from the army. Click on photo number for a larger size.
