After attending Abraham Lincoln High School for a year, Brooks graduated from Eastern District High School and then spent a year at Brooklyn College as a psychology major before being drafted into the army in 1944.
He was placed in the Army Specialized Training Program and sent to the Virginia Military Institute to be taught skills such as military engineering and later underwent basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
He served in the United States Army as a corporal in the 1104 Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division, defusing land mines as the allies advanced into Germany during World War II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Brooks
The number 1104th jogged my memory. After the war ended, every man in my Father’s battalion was given several poster sized histories of their Battalion.
I just looked at one which gave the history of the 1104th Engineer Combat Group. It contained maybe 25 Battalions, about half were Engineer Combat Battalions. The rest were odds and ends.
My Father’s battalion, The 208th ECB, has a poster listing every man in the Battalion including men lost and transferred.
It sounds like Brooks confused ECB with ECG. He was in the 1104 Engineer Combat Group just like my Father and they were in really heavy combat during the Roer River Crossings. Having numerous bridges blown up and having to start all over.