Welcome. We'll do everything humanly possible to help you out. Some of the engineering units are pretty tough, but don't give up hope. Let me see what I can come up with.

I was wondering when you are looking for information what sources are you looking at, and are they available to the folks like me?

I have not been to sucessful finding any information on this unit at all. It is like this unit was never around. But It had to of been I have a letter from its CO to the CO of the 973rd engineer maintenance company.

Well, because of my research, I've had to acquire army and engineer manuals, books and other documents from the Army Corps of Engineers, used book stores, and the donations of my wonderful vets, who have so kindly passed their possessions onto me. So I often scour what resources I currently have on hand when coming up with answers for my new friends.

I also seem to have much better luck than most with Internet searches, and often come up with things that others seem to miss. Just call me super-sleuth!

I have not been to sucessful finding any information on this unit at all. It is like this unit was never around.

Boy did you hit the nail on the head there! Finding info on some of the units is almost impossible, but that is why I also suggest contacting the Office of History at the Army Corps of Engineers. They USUALLY have folders on the all the engineering units, so please check with them. As I've stated to others, some of the folders are very impressive and carry vast amounts of data, while other may be skimpy or even non-existant, but please give them a call. Here is the contact page for them. They are great people to work with! If you talk to Michael Brodhead, please let him know that I personally referred you.

http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/contact_us.htm

I will keep looking...

You may want to do a bit of sleuthing yourself here. Try contacting the surviving family members of this man and his wife. He served with the 472nd and his wife was active in keeping the unit's history alive. I would suggest that you do a search in the Davenport, Iowa area. I am sure if you can find them, the family would be willing to share what info that Dee and Mel had in their possession. I would suggest beginning with the church listed.

My suggestion is to always leave your info with whoever you get in touch with. This way they can pass along your name and contact info. As you can imagine, some do not like to give out names, addresses and telephone numbers without verifying who you are first. So it's always easier and most respectful of their privacy for them to contact you. Good luck!

-----------------

March 19

Misfeldt, Wanda "Dee" Irene, mother of Michael Misfeldt. Wanda "Dee" Irene Misfeldt, 83, of Davenport, passed away Saturday, March 19, 2005, at Good Samaritan Home in Davenport.

Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 22, at St. Mark Lutheran Church, 2363 West 3rd Street, Davenport. The family will greet friends from 3-8 p.m. on Monday at the Runge Mortuary. Burial will be in Davenport Memorial Park.

Wanda Irene Dee was born Oct. 4, 1921, at Melbourne, Iowa, daughter of Herman and Emma Dee. She was a graduate from Melbourne High School and The American Institute of Business in Des Moines, Iowa. She was employed by the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company and the Solar Aircraft Company. In later years she worked at Hancock Fabrics. She was married to Melvin L. Misfeldt on Dec. 23, 1945, at St. John's Lutheran Church in Des Moines. He passed away on Sept. 8, 1992. Dee, an Associate photographer and her husband, Mel, operated the Misfeldt Photography Studio in Davenport for 46 years, specializing in wedding photography.

She is a retired member of Professional Photographers of Iowa. Dee still handled the affairs of the 472nd Engineer Maintenance Co. that Mel organized after the War by sending out their newsletter.

She was a member of St. Mark Lutheran Church and served as secretary of the St Mark Women, member of Chapter 178, Order of Eastern Star, Grand Cross of Colors, Davenport Area Retired School Personnel Association, Chapter 106 Women of the Moose, 60 year member of Alpha Iota International Business Sorority, American Legion Auxiliary, Daughters of the Nile No. 10, former member of Emeis Ladies Golf Club, 19 year member of Northpark Mall Walkers, member of American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society, Genesis Auxiliary, and Shrine Widows.

Her greatest enjoyment in recent years was babysitting and enjoying the activities of her great-grandson, Cody Williams.

Those left to honor her memory include her daughter, Pamela (Mrs. Dennis Bass) Davenport; a son, Dr. Michael L.(Alice) Misfeldt, Columbia, Mo.; and grandchildren, Jodee (Mrs. Rob Williams), Jeffrey Bass and his fiancée, Keri Droegmiller, of Davenport, Andrew Misfeldt, of Nashville, Tenn., and Kristin Misfeldt, of St. Louis, Mo.; great-grandson, Cody Lee Williams, of Davenport; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Melvin, her parents, Herman and Emma Dee, her three brothers, Donald Dee, Dr. Clarence Dee, Delbert Dee, and her sister, Chrystal Lucas.

Memorials may be made to St. Mark Lutheran Church, The Shriner's Crippled Children Fund, or The American Heart Association. The family would like to thank the nurses and staff of Good Samaritan Home for their care and compassion shown to Dee during her stay with them.

Published in the Quad-City Times from 3/20/2005 - 3/21/2005.

I have also contacted my buddy David who has this site:

http://www.ixengineercommand.com/units/973rd.php

I will see if he knows anything.

Later that same day...

I see you have already found David's site. Okey-dokie!

Spence, I noticed that in another post from you on this site, you state that the records were destroyed in a fire. While this for the most part is true, this ONLY relates to personnel records, NOT the army records for the units.

You will need to contact NARA in St Louis and NARA in College Park, Maryland. You CAN retrieve any records from these facilities, but for a cost. You can write to them and see what they have. When they contact you with any information they may have, then you have the following options:

• Go there yourself and copy the info
• Have them copy info for you - this is limited though
• Hire a college research assistant
• Or hire a private researcher

Please see my notes in the RESEARCH section of this forum on how to contact these facilities. Let me know if you need any help.

I hired a private researcher to begin the work for me right now. She is currently copying info from College Park for me.

WOW!!!

I do appreciate all of the help. I have been looking for over a year for information and I think have found more contacts and directions to look towards from you than any one person since I have been looking. I have found many individuals like yourself that have been so helpful.

I have been to your friends site and the 973rd Engineer Maintenance Company has a little more infromation out their than 472nd but I have come up dry. I am trying to find what the units overall attachment was. I found out the 973rd was part of the 9th AAF but I have been looking for any connection for the 472nd. My great uncle's discharge papers stated that he participated in Guadalcanal and the only AAF unit that I can find that has a listing of being in that area was the 13th AAF.

Again thank you for all the infromation. I will try to try my best with these contacts you reccomended.

Hey I enjoy doing this. It's so satisfying to be able to dredge up info and present it to someone. I do hope you will get somewhere with the Iowa connections. That would be just awesome.

Marion,

I got a chance to talk with Michael Brodhead. He was very helpful. I also wanted a place to send my found information so it can be helpful to all that seek it. Michael said that I could send it to him when I was done and he could include it in their archives. He even sent me more information on the 973rd to me and a bunch of other areas to look for information. I think that now I have so many areas to look it is going to keep me busy.

I did contact the church and got ahold of a friend of the family and she wanted me to call back and talk with the church secretary and they should be able to forward a message to them. The lady I talked with wanted to just give me the daughter's number so I could call her but I thought that I might be better to leave my contact number so they might contact me. Is this the way to go or should I call her directly? I was able to find their home addresses and phone numbers on the internet but I feel strange calling them direct.

I am so happy for you. Super-sleuthing does pay off!

Well, first off, if they were willing to give you the number, then heck sweetie, go for it. It's not like you got the number off the black market. Guess the woman thought you were an honest soul and trusted you. Gee I am sitting here in anticipation, can't wait to hear where this takes you! I'm sure she will be delighted to hear from you. She will also respect the fact that you were apprehensive about doing so though. It shows respect for she and her family.

Bottom line, whatever you are comfortable with.

Ah, told you Michael was a great man. I just heard from him yesterday myself. I really admire him. Top notch in my book!

Three cheers to you for aggressively going ahead with your research.

Michael sent me some additional information on the 472nd. Here is what he sent me.

Dear Mr. Lambing,

In a volume entitled The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Japan, by Karl C. Dod, I found the following (pp. 212-213)

"Next was the matter of finding skilled mechanics. Repeated requests from the theaters for equipment repair units brought the word from Washington that none were available. Finally, on 10 November [1942], the 472d Engineer Maintenance Company landed at Noumea [New Caledonia], the sole unit of its kind to be sent to the far Pacific in 1942. Within a few days the men were swamped with work. Because their shop equipment was being sent on a later transport, they had to tackle the tremendous backlog of repairs with a few tools borrowed here and there. A month after reaching New Caledonia, the unit's commander wrote, 'Life is very busy over here, but very interesting, what with three-cylinder Southern Cross engines, Leeds-Fowler power units, five-cylinder Paxman-Ricardo diesel engines, 75-year-old French locomotives, Nippon brand cement mixers, [and] miscellaneous Japanese electrical apparatus . . . there is never a dull moment.'"

Mike Brodhead

So, I did contact the church today and got ahold of the secretary and left my contact information. She said that she was going to see Pam"s (Wanda's daughter) daughter and will forward my information. I a going to wait to see if anything comes from this approach. Then I will contact her directly. Thank you for the vote of confidence.

Good stuff from Michael. Ya, those type of units had their work cut out for them. As the book states, they were few and far between so never had a dull moment. There was always something for them to do and a backlog at that!

Glad that you made even more progress as far as contacting the family. I think you will have lots to talk about and I hope they will be able to copy a lot of the data that's been collected over the years. What a plus that both the husband and wife were so active with this unit's history. Bravo!

Marion,

Michael Brodhead has been very helpful, He is still emailing me infromation on both the units my great uncle was in. He has provided me with many other contacts and I am sifting through all of the information he has sent.

Just some related news. I have received a 41 page packet of information on my great uncles other unit, the 973rd. Every day I go to the mail box I can hardly wait to see if I have any new mail from the folks I have contacted. Its like christmas every day.

I think I have got the research bug. Thank you for all of the encouragement, this has become a passion for me.

Spencer Lambing

Hillsboro, OR