The 353rd Engineer General Service Regiment disembarked from the
         S.S. President Grant 12 June 1943 at the Port of Noumea, New Caledonia.
         The unit proceeded to its bivouac area in the Dumbea River Valley about
         twelve miles north of Noumea. After a week spent in preparation of a
         suitable camp, the regiment was ready for work on 21 June 1943.
         
              New Caledonia is an island about two hundred and thirty miles long
         and from thirty to forty miles wide, located about eight hundred miles east of
         Australia. In 1942 headquarters for both the Army and the Navy operations
         in the South Pacific area had been moved from New Zealand to New
         Caledonia. Because of the excellent harbor at Noumea and its strategic
         location it was decided to develop the area as a supply base. To accomplish
         this storage facilities had to be provided and the existing roads had to be
         improved. However, in June 1943, no advantage had yet been taken of one
         of the islands more important attributes - its freedom from malaria, the
         disease that was responsible for more casualties in the early days of the war
         in the South Pacific Area than any other single cause. Because of this
         characteristic it was decided to establish on New Caledonia a hospital center
         to care for the casualties from contemplated operations in the Solomon
         Islands and the Bismarck Archipelago.
         
              The mission of the 353rd Engineer Regiment on New Caledonia was to
         fulfill the requirements outlined in the preceding paragraph; namely, to
         improve the existing road network, to construct hospitals and storage
         facilities and to maintain existing installations.
         
              The regiment was poorly equipped to embark on any sort of
         construction program and the history of the first few months on New
         Caledonia was a history of continuous struggle with inadequate and
         makeshift equipment. Principal items of T/E equipment were two (2) 1/2-yard
         shovels with attachments, two (2) motorized graders, eight (8) R-4 tractors
         equipped with angledozers, and eight (8) air compressors. Twenty-four (24)
         2-1/2 ton dump trucks were authorized but these were not available at the
         time and the regiment had been issued 1-1/2 ton trucks in lieu of the 2-1/2
         ton trucks. From this it will be seen that the road building and earth moving
         equipment was scarce and what there was was too light for any heavy
         work. The situation with regard to hand tools and power driven tools such
         as are used in light building construction was equally bad. There were one
         hundred and eighty-nine hammers and one hundred and twenty-six saws in
         the entire regiment. To supplement these there was a small electric bench
         saw and the pneumatic circular saws, which were accessories with the air
         compressors. These tools were hardly sufficient for the six hundred men
         who were available for labor on the proposed hospital center. It must also
         be mentioned that the regiment had no concrete mixing machinery, it had no
         wheelbarrows with which to handle concrete and it had no equipment with