164 Infantry Regiment Annual Reunion (WWII)(Korea)

[Editor 164 Infantry News]

The annual reunion of the 164th Infantry Association of the United States will be held in Valley City, ND, on 18-20 September 2009.

Last year, 20 WWII veterans of Bougainville attended the reunion (19 of them fought the battles at Guadalcanal).

The 164th (Americal Division) was the first Army unit to offensively engage the enemy in either theatre in WWII when they reinforced the 1st Marines at Guadalcanal on 13 Oct 42.

The Regiment was again activated for the Korean War, and was assigned to Camp Rucker as a training regiment. Individuals volunteered or selected for assignment to units in the Korean Theatre. This included W. W. Keeble, posthumous Medal of Honor winner (veteran of Guadalcanal as well as Korea).

[jejohnson]

Does anyone know how many survivors there are from the 164th Infantry that served in Guadalcanal? I was wounded there and I still have a Japanese bullet in my leg. I will be turning 90 this October and was wondering how many of us are still around. Most of my life I never wanted to talk about the war, but I guess enough time has gone by. It would be fun to swap some stories

[Editor 164 Infantry News]

Mr Johnson
I would be very pleased to link you up with a few of your old buddies. Please contact me at Editor164InfantryNews@hotmail.com.

You might also be interested in The 164th Infantry News -- it's a great way to read about the history of your unit. I've been told that it "sure brings back memories"!!

[Les Groshong]

Dear Editor, I was with the Eighth Marine Regiment when it landed on Guadalcanal, and the first thing that we heard from the Marines who had been there from the beginning was how great the Army was as fighting men. They had already nicknamed the 164 th as 'Little Marines', which was as high a praise a Marine could give to a non-Marine. Les Groshong

[JMarks]

Les I am searching for anyone who may have remembered my Dad Jerry Marks. He served in the 164th from Guadacanal through the occupation in Japan. I unndestand that he was a flamethrowerman and in Japan an MP. In his picture from Guadacanal. He said the guys called him "Toothpick". I have some pictures of his as an MP from a War Trial in Japan.