15th Combat Engineer
Battalion reunion - 2001
The following was forwarded by Don Anderson, president of the 15th Combat Engineer Battalion Association (15th CEBA).
RECAP OF THE 2001 REUNION
The
2001 Reunion of former members of the 15th Combat Engineer
Battalion, held in conjunction with the Mobile Riverine Force Association, in
Ft. Mitchell, KY is over and based on the comments of those attending, a good
time was had by all.
THURSDAY:
Those that, arrived Thursday afternoon and early
evening, got together for dinner in the Hotel included, Fred Rey (D), Don
Anderson (D), Gary Sieg (D), Joe Frazier (A) and Henry McMahon (A). After dinner a few beers and hours of conversation were
enjoyed in Henry McMahon’s (A) room.
FRIDAY:
After a Breakfast Buffet put on by the Hotel, everyone
gathered in our Hospitality Room for coffee, conversation and photo looking.
Former
Lt. Charles Houghton, DELTA Company, 2nd Platoon entertained the
group with his slide show of his visit to modern day Vietnam. Houghton pointed
out several locales recognized by many of us who were in the Delta. New bridges
have been built over the My Tho River as well as new ferries. Our old base camp,
Dong Tam is being used as a snake farm for the meat and venom.
Houghton
was there for three weeks teaching conversational English to the Vietnamese with
a group from the States. “Letters Home” from Houghton can be read on the
Association’s website at www.15thcombatengineers.org
All
during the day guys were arriving like Don Bramley and Ron Wilson with their
wives.
SATURDAY:
After
the Breakfast Buffet everyone started gathering in the Hospitality Room for more
of the same type activities.
Loyd
Gerardot, formerly with ALPHA Company, '66-'67 brought his digital slide show of
photos from his tour of duty to share with everyone.
Kenneth
Pacyga, formerly of ALPHA Company ('66-'67), brought about seven photo albums
covering his tour of duty. He also had a "Yearbook" from Ft. Riley,
KS, which included photos of all of the Companies in the 15th Combat
Engineer Battalion in '66.
J.C.
Brown, formerly of ECHO Company, ’66 has borrowed the “Yearbook” from Ken
to see if he can find the publisher or reproduce the book in some manner.
Elections
were held Saturday afternoon, after confirming a quorum had been established per
the By-Laws and all voting members were given ballots on which to write down the
candidates of their choice for the Board. Paul Kasper (HQ & C) and Pierce Michael (D) were elected
to 2-year terms. J.C. Brown (E), Robert Sage (A) and Don Anderson (D) were
elected to 4-year terms. Ric Hutchinson was also a candidate for election.
One
item was brought before the group for a non-binding vote, and that was a
suggestion that the Association try to sponsor a reunion of just the 15th
Combat Engineer Battalion and possibly hold the reunion somewhere near Ft.
Leonard Wood, MO. with possible tours at the Fort. The general reaction was
positive and the Board will go forward to collect information and analyze the
possibility. We will keep everyone informed.
J.C.
Brown arranged dinner for the group and the group took the Hotel shuttle to a
seafood restaurant called “Shells”
After
Dinner we reopened the Hospitality Room for more conversation, beer/sodas and
photo looking.
Latter,
we viewed a number of videos.
Gary
Sieg, DELTA Company, '66 presented a video made up of his photos and slides from
his tour. His video included music, beginning with "Soldier Boy"
Federico
Rey, also formerly of DELTA Company ('67-'68) provided a video of his tour of
duty.
Don
Anderson, also formerly of DELTA Company ('67-'68) had a video of his tour
including some photos of the Bob Hope USO show on Christmas Day, 1967 at Camp
Bear Cat with Raquel Welch.
In
addition, Don had a video of the 1999 reunion and the gathering on Veterans Day,
2000 in Washington, DC where a wreath was laid at the Vietnam War Memorial to
honor the Battalion's dead.
On behalf of the Board I would like to offer our thanks and praise for the work that Ric Hutchinson has performed over the last two year working on the Association’s website. It’s a thankless job and I wanted Ric to know how much his work has meant to the Board and the Association.
Also, Don asked to post the following since we are all trying to locate 15th vets:
"HELP"
No
this isn't about the Beatles song of our youth. The 15th Combat
Engineer Battalion Association needs help in finding all of the Officers and
Enlisted men who served in the Battalion during it's deployment to Vietnam.
You
can help in many ways. One way is go through that old box of your military life
that's in a closet, attic or basement and look for old orders. Occasionally
there will be others from the same Battalion listed on the orders. Orders for
rotation back to the States usually listed the home address of the individual.
They always had the individuals service number list or after 1969 his Social
Security Account Number (SSAN).
The
above is valuable information for locating the individual. Obviously a home
address is valuable. For an enlisted man the first two letters (RA or US)
indicated whether he joined or was drafted. The next two numbers indicates the
area of the country where he came from. Sometimes these numbers may include as
many as twelve states.
The
first three numbers of a Social Security Account Number (SSAN) will indicate
which state the number was issued in.
At
the end of this article is a list of the RA/US numbers and the SSAN codes for
your use. You will find in your search some of the guys will have service
numbers that don't show up on the list or their service number will be from some
other area than the area they came from. Some of this with the RA numbers is due
the Army Recruiters signing a guy up in Texas but registering him as being from
Indiana to help another Recruiter who hadn't made his quota. This is what
happened to me. My service number is RA15 which includes the Indiana area, but I
took my oath and signed the documents in downtown Houston, Texas. My number
should have been RA18.
Sometimes
guys who were drafted into the service will change their status from draftee to
Regular Army, which shows up as RA54.
Occasionally
you will find an individual whose service number is RA 67…I'm not sure were
the numbers originated from. It may be an Enlisted Reserve or National Guard
number and the individual didn't meet his obligation so he was called up.
If
someone has some information on this let me know.
Finding
Officers is more difficult and if anyone has a way of doing it please let us
know. Like are their numbers SSAN or something else?
Right
now we are operating off of a list that CWO Grimur "Mac" Magnusson has
provided which is extensive.
"What
if I don't have any old orders how do I find the guys I served with?"
Copies
of "Morning Reports" and/or "Duty Rosters" can be obtained
from;
National
Personnel Records
Military
Personnel Records
9700
Page Ave.
St. Louis, MO. 63132-5100
There
is a search fee of $8.30 due up front and then additional fees for pulling the
files and printing the results. A request will take anywhere between one and 4
months to complete.
You
should be specific as to the Army Division, the Battalion, Dates and the
Company. It is best to give them a range of 3-4 months in a certain year to
search. The 9th Inf. Div. was terrible about keep records.
The
Report/Rosters will provide an alphabetical listing of the enlisted personnel
available for duty in that company. Additional information about the individuals
will include service numbers/SSAN, when they arrived in Country and when they
are due to rotate back to the states. Their MOS will be listed and their rank.
Sometimes there is an indication that an individual is in a hospital or some
other non-duty place.
Once
you have a roster you can go to work locating the guys you served with. If you
have access to the Internet or to one of the commercially available
"National Telephone Directories" you can look up the guys. The unusual
last names are easier to find than the Brown, Jones, etc.. You can call them or
send letters or postcards to see if you have found the right one. Post cards
cost 20-cents to mail, whereas
letters will cost 34-cents and phone calls even more.
Back
to "HELP" , if we can get a couple of volunteers per company we
can knock this work out and have a bigger turnout at our next reunion.
We
already have several "Morning Reports" and "Duty Rosters"
and we are attempting to acquire the remainder of the rosters for the
Battalion's six companies.
MILITARY
SERVICE NUMBERS
RA
(Regular Army)
RA10 - Hawaii
RA11 - CT, ME,
MA, NH, RI, VT
RA12 - DE, NJ, NY
RA13 - MD, PA, VA
RA14 - AL, FL, GA, MS, NC, SC, TN
RA15 - IN, KY, OH, WV
RA16 - IL, MI, WI
RA17 - CO, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE
ND, SD, WY
RA18 - AR, LA, NM, OK, TX
RA19 - AK, AZ, CA, ID, MT
NV, OR, UR, WA
Selective
Service Inductees:
US50
- HI
US51 - CT, DE, ME, MA, NH,
NJ, RI, VT
US52 - IN, KY, MD, OH, PA,
VA, WV
US53 - AL, FL, GA, MS, NC,
SC, TN
US54 - AR, TX, LA, OK, NM
US55 - Co, IL, IA, KS, MI, MN
MO, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
US56 - AZ, CA,
ID, MT, NV, OR,
UT, WA
US502 - AK
Social
Security Codes
001
thru
003 NH
004
007 ME
008
009 VT
010
034 MA
035
039 RI
040
049 CT
050
134 NY
135
158 NJ
159
211 PA
212
220 MA
221
222 DE
223-231, 691-699* VA
232
236 WV
237-246, 681-690* NC
247-251, 654-658* SC
252-260, 667-675* GA
261-267, 589-595* FL
268
302 OH
303
317 PA
318
361 IL
362
386 MI
387
399 WI
400
407 KY
408-415, 756-763* TN
416
424 AL
425-428, 587,588* MS
752-755*
MS
429-432,676-679*
AR
433-439, 659-665* LA
440
448 OK
449-467, 627-645 TX
468
477 MN
478
485 IA
500 MO
501
502 ND
503
504 SD
505
508 NE
509
515 KS
516
517 MT
518
519 ID
520
WY
521-524, 650-653* CO
525,585, 648-649* NM
526-527, 600-601 AZ
528-529, 646-647* UT
530, 680*
NV
531
539 WA
540
544 OR
545-573, 602-626* CA
574
AK
575-576, 750-751* HI
577
579 DC
580
Virgin
Island
580-584, 596-599 PR
586
Guam
586
Amer.
Somoa
700
728** RRB
·
*New
areas allocated but not yet issued
·
**
Railroad Board
HAPPY
HUNTING !!!
Don
Anderson
