My own overseas service in World War II is forever tied to Company B, 3104th Signal Service Battalion, and it is therefore the central focus of my wartime recollections. The older I get, the more important to me these recollections have become. Since the end of the war I have had the pleasure of keeping in touch at Christmas with a number of my friends in the 3104th, but every year there are a few less cards to send and nearly always a few sad messages received from the families of old friends. One of these was Jim Kirkpatrick, who went with us overseas as Battalion Executive Officer and returned with us as Battalion Commander. When he died in 1999, my reflections on those days so long ago seemed to take on a new urgency.
As it turned out, I had been working with the Signal Corps OCS Assn in an effort to locate former members of the unit. All I had to work with was a single list of the officers and the addresses to which baggage should be sent after the Henry Gibbins arrived in Boston. Using the internet and the telephone I located some and verified the death of many. The result was a mailing list. Unfortunately, after sending a letter out to these survivors, my wife became an invalid and I became a fulltime caregiver. However, by the Grace of God I can now spend a little time on some other things.
It seemed like a good idea to use my long-dormant website as a place to gather together a few things which may be of interest to former members of the 3104th and perhaps even their children and grandchildren who may be interested in what we did. A lot remains to be done, and I ask you to contribute comments, recollections, photos, diaries, copies of documents you have, or anything at all so that we can ultimately have a complete picture of what the 3104th contributed in World War II.
Here is what I have so far: