I've been invited to attend the 326th Engineer's reunion this week that is being held in Frankenmuth, MI, which is about an hour south of me. My friend Doug whose father is featured on my site
https://ww2combatengineers.comCha...arlesWilber.htm
is going to be attending too. I talked with Doug this afternoon and I am going to meet him on Thursday. Just going for one day and will come home Friday morning.
I also got a very nice phone call earlier today from a woman named Jane. Seems she found our site this weekend, and when she found out how close I lived to the reunion, she decided to call to see if I would like to drive down. We talked for about 10 minutes about the reunion and she expressed her disappointment in the lack of info there is on WWII engineers. I agreed and told her that it's up to people like us to change that. Her father is Bob Likam, a member of the 326th, a very active person who still has a lot of involvement with his regiment.
She informed me that she had already make up cards with my info on it and will share them with all this week. She said she is also bringing whatever info she had on the unit and engineers in general, to display. I told her I would be happy to share what I had too. I am looking forward to meeting her. It's always great to meet yet another proud daughter of a combat engineer. 
Thought I should add that the 326th was part of the 101st Airborne.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Hi Gang:
Got back this afternoon. Yet another great trip. Only there Thursday afternoon to Friday morning and wished it could have been longer. But, nonetheless am happy that I got to go and meet the gang.
I have photos to share, along with a newspaper article that was done this week in Frankenmuth.
The newspaper photo is shown below. I am also including the entire article as a PDF file.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Bob Likam talks about the many uses of helmets in WWII.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Bob Likam and helmet
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
One of Steve's many "museum" items. This helmet was signed by members of the 101st
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Another angle of the helmet
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Steve Berge, Doug Wilber, the son of Charles Wilber (featured on our main site), and Bob Likam.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Steve's mannequin. I wound up naming him "Itchy"! 
What you ask? Well we found out that Joe Crilley's nickname was Scratchy. He said he hadn't heard that in YEARS. It was the first time his wife has heard it. So of course, Steve, Doug and I started laughing about Itchy and Scratchy of The Simpsons cartoon fame. So thus Mr. Mannequin became Itchy. We had a good laugh.
So here's Itchy and Scratchy 
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Here's Bob, yours truly and Joe.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Here's Walter (Wally) Karrenberg. Caught him performing after dinner. Seems he has been entertaining the "troops" at every reunion. He had everyone laughing so hard.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Oi!!!! Everybody sing along...
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
I'll post more photos when I get the shared ones that others took, in the near future.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Here's another neat thing. Bob Likam and family did much of the planning for the reunion. When we went to the dinner Thursday night, they had these great place cards at eveyone's seat. Each one was different and had a unique question on the front, with an answer on the back. Super idea!
I was sitting next to Sue Crilley, Joe's wife and we came up with the idea to pass our cards around and have everyone there sign them. Now we had a wonderful souvenior and reminder to take home with us.
While there, we also passed around one for George Koskimaki. I plan on presenting it to him at the next 101st meeting in Farmington Hills in Oct.
Here's the front of my card.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Back of place card with answer
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Inside of my place card with signatures
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
