User:Gwaxcpa/69th Topographic Engineer Company

The 69th Topographic Engineer Company was a United States Army company that served in the Asiatic/Pacific Theater during World War II. It was unlike any such United States military group of it's type at the time to serve in the Pacific. The 69th formed in 1941 at Ft. Lewis, Wa to provided the invasion planning tools of the South Western Pacific Area (SWPA), and post invasion surveys of island land forms all under the direction of General Douglas MacArthur. During it's formation all the tools and equipment, the production methods established and the men trained to use some of the most technological advances at the time. The mission was to provide the processing of reconnaissance film taken by the U.S. Army Air Corp and Navy airplanes. Layout of many pictures, in a mosaic, that was translated into topographic mapping, and, finally, be put to work as surveyed land areas for airfields, road networks, and supply and support facilities.

After nine months of training at Fort Lewis, Wa., the 69th Topographic Engineer Company shipped out Oakland, Ca. with a destination of Darwin, Australia where it aligned itself with the SWPA command. The company of approximately 120 officers and enlisted men assembled equipment and trained men to provided the most critically needed mapping of New Guinea where the Allied forces were to take a foothold at Port Moresby, New Guinea.