Du Quoin Welcomes 335th Engineers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The City of Du Quoin this week welcomes a handful of surviving members of the distinguished 335th Engineers from WWII who are holding a three-day reunion at the Fairgrounds Inn.
The late Louie Hirsch of Du Quoin was a member of that Greatest Generation. His widow, Lois Hirsch, and other spouses and surviving children decided long ago to keep their memory alive. A banquet will be held Saturday at St. John's United Church of Christ in Du Quoin.
This group of men served together in World War II for about four years. They served in France, Germany and other European countries.
Their job was to rebuild roads, bridges and railroads destroyed by bombing and ground fighting. Others worked to string pipelines and clear mine fields.
Only four members of the unit are still living and all are in their nineties (we are now losing our WWII veterans at a rate of upwards of 1,800 a day).
Mrs. Hirsch believes that only two-possibly three--of the men will be in Du Quoin for the 23rd reunion, which members of the Hirsch family will host at the Fairgrounds Inn July 29, 30 and 31--Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The second and third generations since the war are going ahead with plans for the reunion.
About 40--the surviving veterans, children and grandchildren--have made reservations for the banquet.
In 1963 Louie Hirsch received an invitation to a small reunion of these men held in Denver, Colorado at the "Pig and Whistle" Motel (what a name!).
The room rate was $12 a night and the invitation had a 5-cent stamp on it. Reservations for the Saturday night banquet were $3 per person. That reunion was on August 8-10, 1964.
Louie--many called him "Popeye"-- wife Lois, Susan and Janet headed for Denver in an old station wagon and, of course, there was no air conditioning in the car. "We arrived in Denver in rush hour traffic and found the Pig & Whistle Motel," she remembers.
There were 12 from the outfit and most had their families with them. Most of the men hadn't seen each other for 25 years. So, the emotions of these men were very high. They voted to have the next reunion in two years and decided on St. Louis. The Hirsch family helped host it and there has been a reunion every two years since.
Louie was able to attend every reunion after that. His last was in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1998.
"We got to them in cars, on prayers and in wheel chairs," Mrs. Hirsch said.
So, it behooves us to keep the remaining members of this great 335th Engineers in the town's prayers as they head for Du Quoin.