The Saurus Press - Links to 42nd Rainbow, World War I & II, and Other Sites

Rainbow Division Links

Rainbow Division Veterans Memorial Foundation, Inc. (Formerly 42nd Rainbow Division Veterans Association - RDVA)

42nd Infantry Division Task Force Liberty

42nd ID trains to take over Tikrit area By Spec. Ismail Turay Jr. - Fort Drum Blizzard Online, December 16, 2004

42nd Infantry Division News - December 2004
(Released on December 3, 2004 by Public Affairs Office, Headquarters, 42nd Infantry Division, 665 6th Street M, Fort Drum, NY 13602 CONTACT: Maj. Richard Goldenberg (315) 774-0207 Fortysecond.id.pao@us.army.mil

American Forces Press Service Article on Deployment Adjustments Pertaining to 42nd Infantry Division - October 2004

Hernando Rios - August 8, 2005
Anthony N. Kalladeen - August 8, 2005
Azhar Ali - March 2, 2005
Wai P. Lwin - March 2, 2005
Francis C. Obaji - January 17, 2005
Alain L. Kamolvathin - January 16, 2005
Kenneth G. Vonronn - January 6, 2005
Henry E. Irizarry - December 3, 2004
Christian Engeldrum - November 29, 2004
Wilfredo F. Urbina - November 29, 2004

In Remembrance of those who served in the "Fighting 69th" -
Army Spc. Anthony N. Kalladeen, 26, of Purchase, N.Y. and Army Pfc. Hernando Rios, 29, of Queens, N.Y, both assigned to the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, New York Army National Guard, New York City, N.Y.; both died in Baghdad on Aug. 8, 2005 from their injuries sustained when their vehicle came under fire and was struck by improvised explosive devices on Aug. 7.
Army Spc. Wai P. Lwin, 27, of Queens, N.Y., assigned to the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, New York Army National Guard, Manhattan, New York; killed March 2 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle in Baghdad.
Army Spc. Azhar Ali, 27 of Flushing, N.Y. assigned to the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, New York Army National Guard, Manhattan, New York; killed March 2 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle in Baghdad.
Pfc. Francis C. Obaji, 21, of Queens Village, N.Y., died January 17, 2005 in the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, after he was involved in a motor vehicle accident Jan. 16 in Baghdad, Iraq. Obaji was assigned to the Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, New York, N.Y.
Spc. Alain L. Kamolvathin, 21, of Blairstown, N.J., died January 16, 2005 in Baghdad, Iraq, when he was involved in a motor vehicle accident. Kamolvathin was assigned to the Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, New York, N.Y.
Pfc. Kenneth G. Vonronn, 20, of Bloomingburg, N.Y., died January 6, 2005 in Baghdad, Iraq, with six of his fellow Soldiers when an improvised explosive device struck their Bradley fighting vehicle. Vonronn was assigned to the Army National Guard’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division, New York, N.Y. More at www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/01/08/soldier0.htm.
Staff Sgt. Henry E. Irizarry, 38, of Bronx, New York, died December 3, 2004 in Taji, Iraq, when his unit was on patrol and an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV. Irizarry was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, New York, N.Y.
The Department of Defense announced the death of two soldiers supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died November 29, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq, when their military vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. Both were assigned to the Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, New York, N.Y. Killed were: Sgt. Christian P. Engeldrum, 39, of Bronx, N.Y. and Pfc. Wilfredo F. Urbina, 29, of Baldwin, N.Y. (Source: www.defenselink.mil/releases and DefenseLINK archive)

A Letter From Baghdad...

Dear Sirs,
I wanted to remind you to perhaps update your records, as there are at least two companies of 42 Division soldiers that have been here in Baghdad for over a year now, and are planning to come home by the end of January...Even the official 42 Division website fails to mention a single word of the sacrifices our soldiers have made; including several who have made the "Ultimate Sacrifice"! - G.L. (December 2004)

And a Reply...

All WWII Rainbow Veterans and families as well as Families of WWI Rainbow support our soldiers and wish them well. We grieve for those who are killed, and pray for those who are wounded. It is everyone's fervent desire for this tragic situation to end. My husband who survived in an Infantry Regiment, 1st Scout, throughout WWII with the Rainbow Division is deeply affected by the news of our soldiers.

Yours in the spirit of the Rainbow Division.

Barbara C. Eberhart, wife of Dee R. Eberhart, 242nd Inf. Reg. Co. I (December 2004)

World War I & II Links of Interest

Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Cybrary of the Holocaust

Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust

Dad's War - Finding and Telling Your Father's World War II Story

Jeff Badger's War Buddies from World War II

Tribute to the Americans Who Fought On All Fronts 1941-1945 (Beautifully expressed sentiment)

Veterans History Project

Vet Friends . com - Reuniting Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces

42nd Infantry Division History by Grunts.net with request for personal stories by Rainbow Division veterans

Rainbow Division Veterans Association Special Collection Archives at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Detailed Descriptions of Second Battle of the Marne
in the Belleau Woods, west of Chateau Thierry and along the Ourcq River

The Battle of the Bulge - The Northern Shoulder

The Battle of the Bulge - Operation Nordwind

Oral History Interview with Bruce C. Clarke, Combat commander in the 7th and 4th Armored Divisions, 1943-45 (participating in the Battle of the Bulge), Harry S. Truman Library

Camp Gruber: The War Years, by Janet Allen for The Three Rivers Museum of Muskogee, Oklahoma

Camp Kilmer, New Jersey During the Second World War

Photographs by an Infantry Platoon Leader in Patton's Army

World War II Battlefield Relics - Virtual Gallery

Lost Poets of the Great War by Harry Rusche, Emory University

Doughboy Verse - The Great War Society

Presidential Proclamation of Gold Star Mother's Day

Recommended Books

L'Outre-Forêt Revue du Cercle d'Histoire et d'Archeologie de l'Alsace du Nord, by Lise Pommois (site in French)

The Final Crisis: Combat in Northern Alsace, January 1945, by Richard Engler. Aegis Consulting Group, Inc., Pennsylvania.

The Rainbow Division in the Great War: 1917-1919, by James J. Cooke (Praeger Publishers, Westport, Connecticut, available through Greenwood Publishing Group)

Winter Storm – War in Northern Alsace, November 1944 to March 1945 by Lise Pommois (Turner Publishing Company).