19th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division

Looking for somebody who can give me a bit of background info on the 19th Marine Regiment which was attached to the 3rd Marine Division. Did the servicemen who made up this division come from one particular geographical area?

 

They came from all over the country. I have the 19th Marines unit logo, can e-mail it to you if you'd like? Jonathon17pim@aol.com

The 19th Marine Regiment was an engineer regiment of the United States Marine Corps subordinate to the 3rd Marine Division. It existed from September 1942 until September 1944.

The 19th Marines was different. It was made up of Seabees, engineers, bakers, piledrivers, pioneers, paving specialists, and many old timers from the 25th Naval Construction Battalion at the U.S. Naval Advance Base, Port Hueneme, California. It, too, was formed at Camp Elliott and its birthday was 16 September 1942. This was the regiment with pontoons for bridges, power plants, photographic darkrooms, bulldozers, excavators, needles, thread, and water purification machinery. No landing force would dare take an island without them. Colonel Robert M. Montague took command of the unit in New Zealand on 11 March 1943.

 

Thank you Thurman. Do you know if any of the 19th Marines remained in New Zealand after the 19th Regiment left on July 13 1943? Is it likely that some remained to work in Auckland? I'm looking for a man named Harold Preston who was here in mid 1944.

 

Ceejay - Sorry, I don't know

 

It doesn't seem likely that any would stay behind (Australia had the big shipping ports). From the description, a unit such as this (building airbases, etc on recently-liberated tropical islands) would be in high demand for building up islands (you can never have enough airstrips and barracks) - ie: would not leave any of its men behind. You can try a NARA search of the name and see what comes up.

 

It is possible because anytime a unit deploys you have a stay behind party. They will maintain or disassemble/ship any facilities, administration, equipment etc. that doesn't deploy.

 

Does anyone know a good source for a more detailed history of the 19th Marine Regiment. More specifically I'm looking for information on the 2nd Battalion (Pioneers) of the 19th Marine Regiment.