Company D,
97th Engineer Battalion (Construction)
History Page

HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS

The 97th Engineer Batallion (Construction) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John H. Carlson will celebrate the 28th anniversary of its activation on 29 September 1961.

First constituted on 1 October 1933 on the Regular Army list as the 56th Engineer Battalion (Separate), and redesignated the 97th Engineer Battalion (Separate) in January 1938, the battalion was activated on 1 June 1941 at Camp Blanding, Florida.

During World War II the battalion was again redesignated as the 97th Engineer Regiment (General Service) and, as such, was engaged in the construction of that portion of the Alcan Highway between White Horse, Canada and Fairbanks and the road between Slana and Big Delta in Alaska.

Upon completion of the northern highway the Regiment returned to the United States and prepared for movement to Australia, then on to New Guinea where the Regiment won battle honors (the Meritorious Unit Streamer) in support of the combat units and engaged in many large scale construction projects.

In 1946 the 97th Engineers were again redesignated as a battalion and moved from New Guinea to the Philippine Islands where they engaged in construction of the vast Camp Angeles complex.

Following a brief period of inactivation between March 1948 and September 1950, the 97th Engineer Battalion (Construction) was located at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri where preparations were made for movement to France.

In 1951, the 97th Engineer Battalion arrived in the Toul area, and later components of the battalion moved into their present locations: Headquarters and Headquarters Company, with Company C, in the Verdun-Etain area; Company A at Vassincourt; while Company B remained at Toul.

The primary mission of the 97th Engineer Battalion (Construction) is the construction, re- habilitation and maintenance of facilities in the communication zone and the rear area of the combat zone.

The 97th Engineer Battalion takes great pride in their accomplishments and the improve- ments they made to the many installations of Eastern France and in their motto, which appropriately enough, is "NO TASK TO GREAT".

Unit personnel accounts:

"Here is what I can remember about the unit:

I checked my military medical records, I was in Co. B. On the way from the repo depot from Germany, there had been a bad ice storm, about two or three inches. We ended up camped out with a Transportation Co, near Metz, France, that night. A few of us decided to go into town and check out France, as I remember we all had Ft. Hood patches on our left sleeve.

The next morning I had my first hangover in Europe. Got to the 97th the next day. A couple days later, they had me using a shovel and it was raining, a Lt. walked by so I asked him if the company needed a welder, he took my hand and took me to the CO, he asked me if I had any problem working with a colored soldier, of course I didn't. They took me to the little welding shop and I met my new boss. He said that is your chair, there are the girly books and here is the whisky. I was back in Korea! Home away from home.

I remember the billets were the shape of a twelve man squad tent but were more permanent, there were two pot belly stoves like we had in Korea but they were coal burners, not diesel like in the Chosen. We had to go on the roof about every hour and drop a lump of coal down the pipe or they would stop up, The main street was deep mud, but we had to have Class A uniforms on to go to them.

There was no housing for the troops that brought families over, they had to live off the French Economy, coal full of rocks and all. To get to the PX the wives would ride the weapons carrier that went to Verdun every morning, if there was room. The black guy in the welding shop was a professional World War II corporal.

I found the Polish Guard Unit's club which was off limits to us, they had good sandwiches and German Beer. The ice was still on the ground, one night another guy and myself went to a French farmhouse and got a burlap sack full of beer, pigs and chickens were in the kitchen. We didn't have a pass to get off the compound, I was carrrying the big bag of beer, we heard a Jeep which was MP's, the road had a steep pitch to it but the ditch was on the other side of the road where we could hide, my feet went out from under me and the sack was first to hit the road. Broke some of the bottles, big ones with round rubber stoppers on top. We had enough to get drunk on, lucky us.

I would say that conditions in the 97th got much better after I left looking at the pictures on the web site. At the time I was there, the area was a medical cassern (SP). The doctor was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in our Army but had a very heavy Polish accent. He is the doc that put me in the hospital, he didn't even try to treat me as I remember. Sent back to duty March 8th, 1955 but was back in the hosptal in Verdun by the 14th. back in the 2nd General Hospital on the 18th. It was brand new, paint was hardly dry.

Check out this: 44th ECB Korea, on your browser. I have a message posted on the site but no replies yet. Most of the guys in the unit were draftees and were older than me. I was 70 in Feb this year, a lot of those guys are probably dead. All for now,

M. R. "Pat" Carmicheal