I have created a blog to honor my father, Russel Halvor Mathiason and the 181st Engineer Heavy Pontoon Battalion for the service they provided in World War II. The following account of their activities is taken from a journal that Dad received at the end of the war. I have done some spell checking, but have not altered what was written in the journal.
http://www.181stengineerheavypontonbattalion.com
Thank You, Dad.
I love you and miss you.
Here is a short excerpt from the journal.
This history of our battalion has been compiled to provide a memento or souvenir or what have you for the days to come when we are no longer together as a group. It is to be presumed that it will bring back memories, experiences and also provide the factual data for the bull sessions of tomorrow.
Most of the data has been taken from material on file in the journal of the battalion. Part of it, however, is comprised of accounts of eyewitnesses. We have endeavored to be as accurate as possible and yet have tried to eliminate most of the tiresome detail found in the records from which the material was taken. For that reason, therefore, many of the little incidents in which you have played a part are not here recorded. To have entered all of them would have taken far more space than we have available, and too, most of them have not been recorded and are thus not too readily available to the editor.
Some acknowledgements are necessary. Practically all of the photographs were taken by the battalion photographer, Tec 5 George Kusyn, whose ability as a photographer has long gone unrewarded. The maps which form an essential part of any history such as this, were drawn by Tec 5 Francis Vogelsang.
We have taken the liberty of inserting the early history of the battalion — the part relating to the 108th Engineer Combat Regiment because some of us have memories of that association.
We trust that this history meets with your approval and supplies your need in the years to come.
THE EDITOR.
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