News
and Coming Events News
and Coming Events
Updated: 09 February 2008
January 2008 Flash is Out!
Included in the preview, see details on:
Florida Gather February 27-28th
Louisville Division Reunion September 24-28, 2008
Also, important Messages from President Don Weed and Membership Secretary Red Gonzales
Revised Flash Index Uploaded
09 Feb 2008
Flash Cross-Reference List Updated
Thanks to Emil Cipolla, a newly created partial index of over thirty Flash editions in a Adobe PDF (Microsoft Excel) format ( he still has the ones for 1996 thru 1998 to do) have been made available through the 78th Division Veterans Association website, and the next, upcoming Flash edition.
Emil's intent is to list the articles that would be of potential interest to those who wanted to get an insight into the experiences of the World War 2 veterans from the 78th Division.
The articles chosen were primarily those describing the training, battles and other experiences of these veterans. The majority were of the Huertgen Forest, Kesternich, Schmidt, Roer Dams, Ruhr Pocket, and the Berlin occupation during the period from the summer of 1944 through the summer of 1945. Some of the articles spanned several months, these have a generic label of Germany or ETO (to describe England, France, Belgium, or Germany). Several articles included describe American civilian experiences during the war; others are of the battlefield tours and the Kelly Scholarship program. Each selected article includes the subject, battle, the date, the name and rank of the author, his unit, and of course, the issue number and page.
Interestingly, many of the same battles are discussed from the perspective of the enlisted men, the officers, and the German soldiers and civilians. Emil apologize for any errors or inaccuracies, especially regarding the identity, rank or unit of the author. If notified, he will gladly correct any errors.
Contact Emil T. Cipolla at etc731@optonline.net
New Editor of The Flash
18 June 2007
Don Weed, 78th Division President, announced today that he has appointed Jennifer Norton as the Flash Editor to replace Bill Parson after his passing last month. The appointment was approved by vote of the Executive Board of 78th Association.
Nine 78th Division soldiers are still "Missing in Action, body not recovered" after 61 years
6-7-06
Can you help find them?
61 years after the end of WWII there´re still nine men of the 78th Division officially Missing in Action (MIA).
Right after WWII there were many MIAs and according to "Lightning", the main unit history of the 78th Division, there were still 39 MIAs in 1947. But many of them have been found in later years as results of searches or by accident.
The number of MIAs listed today in the internet database of the American Battlefield Monuments Commission (ABMC) is most realistic. According to ABMC there´re nine 78th Division soldiers remaining MIA and their bodies were never recovered from the battlefield.
We need to know what happened to these nine men!
In some cases nothing is known about the units these men were in, but most of all there´s nothing known about the situations leading to their disappearance or the places where they went missing.
To find out details about the whereabouts of these men we need help and support from all members and friends of the 78th Infantry Division Association and especially from those that knew one of the MIAs. Each little bit of information is of great importance.
What little you remember about the "where" and "how" can help to find them in the future. Like a piece to a puzzle we depend on your help and support with informations, recollections, official reports, maps or even hand drawn sketches.
If you know one of the men below, please spend some time writing down what you remember about them and especially what you remember about the battles, places, times, situations that are connected with the loss of these MIAs.
Grave where MIA Robert Cahow, K/311th, was found in 2001 - click for larger
view
This text and the following list is not a start for active battlefield search or digging due to many reasons! At this point in time it´s only a start to collect some informations. The minimum goal would be to have these informations ready if there ever will be another accidential discovery like Robert Cahow in 2001 to support military and government institutions in the process of identification.
Monument to MIA Robert Cahow, K/311th - click for larger
view
If you can support this project in any way, please contact 78th Division Webmaster Greg Farrell.
List of 78th Infantry Division MIAs:
309th Regiment
HUSAK, LEO J. - S/Sgt - 38432713 - TX - January 30, 1945 (A Company)
SAPPINGTON, OSCAR E. - Pfc - 38592456 - OK - January 11, 1945 (C Company)
SHANN, PAUL - Sgt - 34366736 - TN - January 12, 1945 (F Company)
310th Regiment
KALLENBERGER, EDWARD - Pfc - 37554577 - ND - January 9, 1945 (Medical Detachment)
MUELLER, ARTHUR W. - Pvt - 42140916 - NY - March 24, 1945
311th Regiment
DOBSON, JAMES L. - Pvt - 36442107 - IL - January 23rd, 1945
FITZGERRELL, ROBERT - T/Sgt - 18160898 - OK - January 30th, 1945
JACKOVICH, ALEX - Pvt - 35845496 - IN - February 3rd, 1945
MC BRIDE, EUGENE G. - Sgt - 37476150 - NE - January 30th, 1945
[Name, rank, ASN, home state, date of disappearance, company - if known]
Article submitted by Ralf Klodt, Germany
78th Division Advanced Research documents now
available
5-10-06
The RESEARCH section of the website now has an Advanced Research Subsection.
For details, please review the information in Subsection 7 in the Research Section of the Website.
This area is intended for use by serious researchers with advanced computer skills due to the extremely large file sizes that have to be downloaded using high speed internet connections. They also need to be proficient in setting up their own personal access to the fileserver and knowing how to download a file from an internet file server (and no, you don't just click the link!)
Over time, additional materials will be uploaded, so researchers will want to check in from time to time to see if anything new has been added. Major additions will be posted to the Message Board. We have a few Flash back editions uploaded to give you an idea of what is packed into each Flash issue, but if you want to receive the current copies 4 times a year, become a member or associate member of the 78th Division Veterans Association!
If you have scanned 78th division related documents and would like to contribute them, please contact us (gregf@pon.net). There are several different ways we can work with you to manage the upload, be it direct access where you upload from a CD or PC hard drive, or by sending us a CD with the files on it.
To follow on-going upload activity, refer to Message Board thread title "Advanced Research documents now available"
7-17-05
Lyken's Map Available in Research Section !
Thanks to Ralf Klodt, this map has been re-imaged in remarkable clarity, and made available through the website for the dedicated researcher, veterans, family members or visitors. This was a large captured wartime German map that PFC (later T/Sgt) B.M. Lykens ASN 33931109 of HQ Company, 3rd Battalion of the 311th Infantry Regiment, traced the regiment's 78th Division route of march from roughly Aachen in the west (panel 7) to roughly Marburg in east (panel 9). Each file is quite large (approximately 1.5 MB each) that can be downloaded or viewed online (you need high speed or broadband internet for best viewing or download speeds) for detailed research. Each panel can be zoomed in upon to read detailed town and terrain feature names. Remagen appears on panel 8.
The map panels can be found in the RESEARCH section of the website in section 5
Get all the latest news, letters to the editor, photos and latest information about the 78th Division Veterans Association in the FLASH
This website helps folks find the Association and to make contact with it. It provides information for families on how to perform research about their veterans. It provides addresses and phone numbers of Association officers, and information on how to become a member for both current serving and past 78th Division veterans and family members, next of kin. The website helps provide some of the information you need. The message board works well sometimes, letters to the editor of the FLASH far far better. If there is research to do, there is no one better to do it and enjoy all the rewards of doing it than you. Get on your favorite word processor and starting writing letters.
Don't give up! Keep at it. Try another approach. Get on the phone.
The rest is up to you.
Think of this website as the doorway to making contact with one of the best veterans groups in the world.
God Bless Our Troops!