I have studied the 2nd Engineers for about ten years. Their history has become a passion for me. I suppose that's because I had a close relationship with my grandfather, Herley.

In Idaho, when I was about eight to ten years old, he was driving me into town from his farm for a hamburger one afternoon. During the drive he said, "I fought at Belleau Wood. When the battle was over, the forest was gone." I didn't have a clue what he was talking about. It was a very short conversation. Today, I know more about the 'what, why and where' than he did. However, he lived it and I will never know just what it was like for him. As we grew older, I didn't ask for more information. It was after he died that I began to research what he said to me that day.

Herley was blinded in one eye by mustard gas at Belleau Wood. During the 90th anniversary of the battle in the wood, the best guide available took me to the very ravine he was gassed in. I have a piece of bomb shrapnel from the ravine on my desk. It doesn't matter that Belleau Wood was 92 years ago ... machine gun bullets, bomb shrapnel and other remnants of that day are still abundant. Many of the bodies are there yet at Aisne Marne Cemetery.

So, why this web site? As I began to study what happened during the Great War involving my grandfather the Belleau Wood story stood out. It cried out about the Marines. The Marines alone! There was almost nothing to say there was anyone involved but the Marines. During the war journalistic censorship would not allow identification of any branches of the U. S. Military. They could only be identified as "units" or "elements" of the U. S. Forces. However, journalists were given permission to name the Marines, and only the Marines, because their name would not give the enemy any useful information. The Marines were not alone at Belleau Wood. There were also regular Army there who could not be identified.

The more I studied, the more the story came alive. I became fascinated by it. 1918 doesn't seem so very long ago now. Researching the 2nd Engineers has taken me to the battlefields in France and the bridgehead area in Germany that was occupied by the American 3rd. Army. It has taken hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. I've enjoyed the journey.

I wish I could tell my grandfather that I now understand what it was he wanted to tell me that day so many years ago. He is the one with a white cross over his head in the photograph.

If you enjoy your visit to this web site, don't forget to introduce yourself. Let me know if you have some photo or story to contribute. You can help improve this site's educational worth. This site will always be about the 2nd Engineers, but it seems appropriate to branch out and begin to include those the 2nd Engineers fought with and supported —
The 2nd Division.

Mitch