From an old Irish ballad.....
"We may have brave men, but we'll never have better"
"We may have brave men, but we'll never have better"
Army honoring the 101st tomorrow
- Thread starter thatsbaseball
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Blood Upon The Risers will give you goosebumps. Those men stared death in the face.
Our neighbor for over 20 years jumped with those guys and was hit in the leg on the way down into the Ardennes. He retired a colonel. We loved him and though he lost his leg from the knee down he was a fearless S.O,B, til the day he died. I remember one time he was going to meet with our city council about a neighborhood zoning problem and I asked if he needed some folks to go with him and he replied in his gruff voice "for what ?" I just grinned and said "naw I guess you don't do you ?". The problem got handled quickly.
The 101st didn’t jump into the Ardennes, they actually went by truck, with the exception of a group of pathfinder’s who were in England at the time training. They were part of the 101st but were detached for training at the time of the Bulge. They jumped in to Bastogne to coordinate air supply drops to keep the 101st supplied. If he was indeed a Pathfinder he was one bad mofo. Those guys were strictly volunteers amongst volunteers. They suffered something like 80% casualties throughout the war.
If you have time this is an interesting documentary about 3 of the few remaining veterans of the WWII 101st.
I probably got something screwed up but I know he was shot after he jumped at the Battle of the Bulge.
He was probably one of the Pathfinder’s. The paratroopers even thought those guys were crazy. Those guys were really unheralded hero’s whose story wasn’t publicized.
My grandfather was a screaming eagle. Have lots of his old paper work including the wire my grandmother received when he was MIA in WW2. Lucky for me he found his way back. Never really got to hear any stories, he died of Alzheimer's when I was 10.