Thirty-Sixth Division Association

The Thirty-sixth Division Association was founded in January 1946 at a meeting in Brownwood of veterans who served with the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division during World War II. Among the association's founders were H. Miller Ainsworth (first president), William H. Martin, Carl L. Phinney, Richard B. Dunbar, and the division's wartime commander, Gen. Fred L. Walker. The association holds annual reunions in order to perpetuate the comradeship engendered by their common service. It sponsored the publication of A Pictorial History of the 36th "Texas" Infantry Division in the late 1940s. After September 1947 membership in the association was open to anyone assigned to the division in World War I or II. On Veterans Day, 1959, on the Capitol grounds in Austin, an eleven-foot granite monument was dedicated by the association to the members of the Thirty-sixth Division who were killed in both world wars. Another monument stands near the Salerno site where the Thirty-sixth Division led the allied invasion into Italy in 1943. In May 1972 the Thirty-sixth Division Association sponsored a return trip to Salerno for its members. The T-Patcher, the official newsletter, is published quarterly.