President's Corner

Hi fellow 44th brothers and sisters, Deborah and I hope this newsletter finds you all doing well.

I think our reunion at Ft. Leonard Wood/ St. Robert, MO went over very well. We all owe Smith Cade a great thank you for all of his work on this. As you may know we tried a new program for our Thursday and had an open day instead of an organized tour. We had a great time socializing with each other but the majority decided that they would prefer a more prearranged day for the reunion’s Thursday next year. Our reunion committee members are Ron Powell, and myself, Rex Hurd. We will endeavor to create something entertaining and keep a budget in mind.

I would also like to take this time to welcome two new comers to the reunion, Ronald Reynolds and Ronald Haggard. Hope to see them and others at our future gatherings.

It was also decided that the association would assist in the cost of the reunion to help keep fees down, and to use some of our funds on ourselves. Now this does not mean room cost, this will still be a member’s expense, but more toward the cost of refreshments and incidentals that are incurred. We will address this as plans come together for next year.

We have selected to go to Branson, MO next year September, 16th, 17th, and 18th 2026. We do not have a host hotel at this time but should have one selected by the winter newsletter. This brings me to a small point. Whenever possible it is important that we stay at the host hotel, this helps in many ways. Most of the time the host hotel will comp our hospitality room and is more apt to assist us in our other needs with the more rooms we rent. In the past we have had to pay for our hospitality room because our lack of attendees’ and when it comes to using it for three days this is a substantial saving to association. It is also an important way for reunion committee to estimate how many people are attending. Anyone that has organized something like this will tell you getting an accurate count for transportation for tour, banquet seating, and refreshments, is so very important, and the hotel assists in this by giving the number of rooms being rented out for the event to the committee. Now this is by no means a directive, a member may stay wherever they wish, I just wanted to point out the pros for staying at the host hotel and how it does help out. Oh and making your reservation as soon as you can also is of great assistance. The committee will try and make sure that the cancellation procedure is clearly understood by membership. The Board of Directors has come up with a means that may help committee out by having a preregistration intent for those not using the host hotel, further details to be coming in winter newsletter.

Hope to see you all at Brason, MO.

Sincerely,

Rex Hurd

President

44th Engineers Battalion Association

r_and_d100@hotmail.com

When you have a chance check out Members Forum, there is a lot of folks wanting to make contact with old buddies and such. Take your time, there are a bunch, and they are listed from latest received to oldest.

Welcome to visitors below.

Welcome to Visitors from the Association's President

I hope you will find this website entertaining as well as informative. Make sure you view all the pages and hopefully you will find something to appreciate.

A special note to those who are alumni of the 44th but are not members of the association. I understand that many of you were attached to the 2nd Infantry Division and I understand your connection to that unit. What you may not know is that the 44th has a rich and glorious history that is second to none and you can be proud to have served with it regardless of when that was. The Korean War veterans that started this association wanted to preserve the traditions, and with the more recent history of the deployment to Iraq has just added to this storied past. What the 44th did in Iraq was arguably no less valiant than when it landed in Inchon with Gen. Douglas MacArthur and its involvement at the Chosin Reservoir. Please understand that the landing in Inchon & the Chosin Reservoir is as much part of our shared history as what was done in Iraq and it is up to us, those that served with the 44th to keep the memories of it alive and to pass them on to the future generations for as long as we can. You can read more on our History page within this website.

A personal note: I was too young to have served with the 44th during the Korean War and too old to have been deployed to Iraq, but as an alumni of the 44th I feel that the soldiers that were there in these campaigns (and others) were my brothers. I feel this way about all that have served with it regardless of when or where. For the 44th always did what it was ordered to do and did it with its own distinctive style.