1LT John Ray Scrimpsher attended the 97th EBC Reunion for 2014 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. While there, Ray disclosed that he had copies of documents received in preparation of the Formal Mess mentioned above. In fact, the photograph with the tankards is part of a ceremony noted in the handouts giving guidance for the Formal Mess. Here are three separate reproductions (PDF) of documents LT Scrimpsher and each other officer received before the event:
Formal Mess Pamplet, May 1968
Formal Mess Personal Invitation, Tradition, and Crud Rules
Basic Requirements of an Officer
Formal Mess Personal Invitation, Tradition, and Crud Rules
Basic Requirements of an Officer
This page contains available editions of the 97th Engineer Battalion (Construction) Newsletter, The Constructor, began by LTC Albert A. Dupont. The first issue appeared within a few months after his assumption of command in August 1967. 1LT Brian Heverin was the Editor of the first issue published in November 1968
Publication style and standard content continued during the unit's remaining years of active duty service—while at Pirmasens, Germany, and until deactivation in the 1970s at Fort Riley, Kansas (anyone knowing when that occurred, please contact the editor). To keep each file to a minimum size, photographs within each issue were not republished, but they appear in a separate file, in newsletter issue order, and will have captions positioned on each photo page to coincide with unique identifier (the file number markers and text) supplied for each photo.
Original newsletters contained material considered unnecessary for publication purposes (non–historical), and any item—including cartoons, drawings, and non-unit photographs—were not included in republished newsletters. Each publication was transcribed and typed by MAJ (Retired) Larry L. Castleman, who also included a complete Table of Content and Index:
The 97th Constructor was not the first newsletter to serve the 97th Engineer Battalion. The first was The Chez Nous (meaning Our Home), a newsletter that appeared in March 1952 and twice a month thereafter. We encourage anyone with a personal copy of any published version of this newsletter to send it in for re–publication.
Publication List, With Direct Link To Each PDF File:
1967:
After the June 1968, Vol 2, Nr 6 issue of The Constructor newsletter was published, the next issue was not published until October 1968. This October 1968 issue was Vol 2, Nr 7 (Jul 68), Nr 8 (Aug 68), Nr 9 (Sep 68) & Nr 10 (Oct 68). The reason no newsletter was published from July 68 thru Sep 68 was because of the redeployment from Germany to Ft Riley, Kansas. Larry L. Castleman.
1968:
- January 1968: Republished 14 July 2013
- February 1968: Republished 24 July 2013
- March 1968: Republished 27 July 2013
- April 1968: Republished 27 July 2013
- May 1968: Republished 27 July 2013
- June 1968: Republished 27 July 2013
- July—October 1968: Republished 28 July 2013 [Unit moved to Ft. Riley, Kansas]
- November 1968: Republished 28 July 2013
- December 1968: Republished 7 August 2013
1969:
1970:
1971:
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