To Any Foe: History of the Ninety-Eighth Engineer (General Service) Regiment of African Americans in World War Ii

By Robert D. Gordon

The Ninety-Eighth Engineer (General Service) Regiment, African American, embarked for North Africa in February 1943 and landed at Algeria. The regiment became nomadic and split up its battalions and companies to work in different locations, including port stewards, road construction, and clearing mines in the Kasserine Pass. All the while, they were moving forward with the combat units until they reached Tunisia. In December 1943, the Ninety-Eighth loaded aboard amphibious vehicle landing ships and sailed to Naples, Italy. As in North Africa, upon arrival, the regiment was split up and sent to different locations. It began work on the ports, roads, railroads, and reconstruction of buildings, minesweeping, and bridges. It moved up the coast of Italy, ensuring that the roads and bridges could hold armor and other vehicles as combat units advanced up the boot. Eventually, the regiment reunited in Leghorn, Italy, where it added another battalion and worked in Pisa, Florence, and surrounding areas until September 1945.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 16, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477256183

Robert D. Gordon

I am a retired Army National Guard officer with twenty-two years of active duty, including two tours in Vietnam, and six years of inactive military duty. I served in the US Marine Corps, beginning in 1958 at the age of seventeen, and spent twelve years in what I call my “piss and vinegar days.” Then, after getting my degree at California State University, Long Beach, I joined the Army National Guard and received a direct commission to captain. I then started working for the Guard full time as an AGR officer and spent another twelve years before I retired as a major. During this period, I went to several military schools, including Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (class of 1989). The time spent in the Army Guard was my "Managemet and Leadership days". I was a company commander of a mechanized company and served in several staff positions at the battalion headquarters as well as an assistant operation officer at the brigade headquarters. My last assignment was as a mechanized battalion executive officer. I started this project when a cousin of mine wanted to know what her dad had done during World War II in an engineer regiment. All she knew what that the regiment was in North Africa and Italy and that it was an African American regiment with white officers. She knew her dad was promoted to lieutenant colonel at the age of twenty-nine. Finding that there was no immediate information on the regiment, I decided that it needed to be recognized for its accomplishments. At the present time, I live in Kansas, on a small ranch in the middle of nowhere, raising cattle and watching the world pass by very slowly. I love to fish, and I love my ’59 Chevy sedan that I cruise around in every week, if not more. I enjoy all my small animals—dogs and cats as well as my mini mules. I travel as much as I can to California to see my kids and grandkids, as well as to Australia, Italy, Alaska, and Japan. I attend rodeos when they are close by, and I carve various animals during the winter. I read a lot and write.

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© 2012 by Robert D. Gordon. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means

without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/13/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-4528-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-5618-3 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012914214

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CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter One

Activation

Chapter Two

England

Chapter Three

North Africa

Chapter Four

Naples, Italy

Chapter Five

Aversa, Italy

Chapter Six

Leghorn, Italy

Chapter Seven

1945

Chapter Eight

Awards

Chapter Nine

Work Orders, Italy

Chapter Ten

Biography of Lieutenant Colonel

Frederick Mueller

Chapter Eleven

Biography of Colonel V. Doss Wood Jr.

Chapter Twelve

Military Acronyms

Bibliography

About the Author

About the Book

Preface

One day while discussing genealogy with a distant family member, she talked about her father who had served in World War II and was promoted to lieutenant colonel at a very young age—twenty-nine—while serving in Italy. She knew he was in an engineer regiment and that it was African American, and that is all she knew. She asked if I could find details on the unit, as I was retired from the military, so she would have some idea what he did during the war.

I found that there was nothing written on the unit, other than it existed. The regiment in question was the Ninety-Eighth Engineer (General Service) Regiment, African American. Because of the lack of information, and for my cousin, I decided that the Ninety-Eighth needed to be recognized for its accomplishments during World War II.

Before the activation of the Ninety-Eighth Engineer Regiment, it was the Fifty-Seventh Engineer Battalion (Separate) in 1933 and an active army engineer regiment. In 1938, it was redesignated the Ninety-Eighth Engineer Battalion (Separate) in Texas.

The training began with very few regular officers in the corps of engineers (CE), and noncommissioned officers (NCOs) were later joined by new officers from the engineer schools and engineer units in the army. The rest of the enlisted men came from engineer-replacement training centers. All officers and NCOs were white while the rest of the regiment troops were African American.

The Ninety-Eighth went from a battalion to a regiment and trained with various types of equipment and weather in Texas and Louisiana. The training was mostly on the job and included building roads, bridges, railroads, and quarries. In June 1942, it moved to New Jersey for embarkation to Scotland. Upon arrival in Scotland, the regiment traveled by train to Enland.

In England, the regiment continued to train, go to various British schools, enjoy the hospitality of the English people, and wait for further orders. In February 1943, the regiment embarked for North Africa, landing at Algeria. The regiment became nomadic and split up its battalions and companies to work in different