I have endeavored here to put together a history of the 3104th from several sources:
First, my memory...which at age 80 is open to question. Luckily I kept a diary from the day we left Ft. Slocum, NY, until we returned to Boston; it has helped my memory a lot.
Some of it is private :) and much of it is banal, but it has at least provided a framework and some information the accuracy of which I can vouch for. I will include excerpts from it on this site at a later date. ("Excerpts", I said. You really think I'd post EVERYTHING on the internet??)
Second, John Leddon has provided me with an excellent history of the battalion, including events after most of us were discharged and the battalion was redesignated as the 24th Signal Service Battalion in 1949. John remained in the Regular Army and later became Company Commander of "B" Company. (That must have been an emotional moment for him.) The history he provided has been invaluable and is included here as a supporting document. Since my narrative ends on August 27, 1945, you may find this document of interest because it continues the history of the 3104th beyond our own memories and into the present. Click here to read it.
Third, Ernie Fulkerson made a serious effort some years ago to get information on the 3104th from the DOD. He was able to get copies of some official War Department historical documents and has been kind enough to send me copies. Selected portions of those documents are also included here. You may Click here to read them.
Finally, I ask every former member to send me pictures, letters, comments, diaries, or anything else they have that may help to fill out and complete this history project. As I receive them, I'll incorporate them into the narrative history. So I earnestly solicit any contribution you might make. Let me have a letter or a note or an email recalling incidents or what your team did. If you can write up a short narrative about your team, please do so. I would like to include, also, a biographical section outlining what each of us has been doing since we landed in Boston so long ago.
You must have some pictures stashed somewhere; please send them to me. I'll scan them and send them back to you promptly. If you'd rather not do that, take them to any local photo dealer and most of them will digitize them while you wait. Then send me the disk.
I would very much like to include some of your remembrances…what team you were on, what kinds of things they did, where you were stationed, who your buddies were, any interesting or exciting incidents that you remember...whatever. Many of you were engaged in highly secret work, but I don't think that matters now…pictures of the Sigaba, for example,are on the internet! ( Click here and check out the National Cryptologic Museum. )
So tell us what you and your team did after you left the apple orchard. Since much of our work was highly classified and the teams were widely scattered, many members of the battalion had no idea what the others were doing. We need to get it all together to have a history.
Have you been back to France? What was your experience with that? I've been back several times and I know of others who also have. How were you affected? It would also be very interesting to have a few paragraphs on what you have been doing since the Henry Gibbins docked in Boston. Don't worry about form or spelling or such…just write it up and send it email or snail mail.
This project has the potential to gather together in one place a considerable amount of information about the war years of the 3104th and give the unit a new kind of dimension, but I need your help....and in a hurry because there are already too few of us left.