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News
From The
508
APRIL 2008 |
ROCK
MERRITT has announced that he and JIM SMITH will sponsor the 508th World War II reunion from 14-18
October 2008 celebrating the 66th anniversary of the 508th activation.
The reunion will be held in the Fort Bragg and Fayetteville area at the
Holiday Inn Bordeaux Motel. All former 508th Association members are
welcomed plus members of the Family and Friends Of The 508th PIR
Association. Final details will be published three to four months prior
to the reunion.
"Let us make this a
special day in the history of the 508th. Our active duty 508 will have
returned from 15 months of duty in Afghanistan and we will have a chance
to mingle and talk with these fine troopers on our day with the 508th at
Bragg. So mark your calendar for the 14-18th October 2008.“
LOST AND FOUND – An
interesting e-mail landed on our desk recently. LOWELL STEVENS, a
civilian worker at Fort Bragg, wrote, “Sir, recently a worker on Fort
Bragg found an old Series E Bond under a file cabinet when it was moved.
The 25-dollar Bond had
the following information printed on its front: PLEAS R. BYRD, 508th INF
1-31-1966, RA-11308627, 589-761-1875.
Perhaps
through your website you could contact this individual or someone who
may know of his whereabouts and pass along this information to him.
We all realize that 25-dollars might not be very much today but it was a
pretty good sum of money in 1966. Thank you for your time and
consideration.”
Anyone with information
regarding PLEAS BYRD can contact MR. STEVENS via e-mail at
lowell.w.stevenssr@us.army.mil
TAPS: WILFORD A. STILL took his
Final Jump on January 12, 2008. WILFORD was from Chambersburg, PA and
had been a member of Regimental HQ Company.
We have just learned that A Company’s one-time 1st Sgt. ROY
BENNETT, has left us as well. Roy’s photo appears many times on the
508th web site. In July 1976, Sgt BENNETT made his Final Jump in Dayton,
OH.
Also arriving is the
late news of the death of WILLIS CARL JACKSON. In 1978 Mr. Jackson
successfully sailed solo from the U.S. to Scotland in his boat the
“Carla Mia”. JACKSON received a heroic homecoming and later recounted
his experiences during the solo crossing in "The Log of the Carla Mia."
Three years
later, in May 1981, the month of his 58th birthday, he set sail for a
return voyage but was lost at sea. Specific date and circumstance of his
demise are unknown. Wreckage of his boat was later found off the coast
of Spain.
WEB SITE UPDATES –
Thanks to the tireless efforts of a number of true friends of the 508th,
all 508th WW-II graves and entries on the tablets of the missing in
Normandy, Margraten, Henri Chapelle, Ardennes and Cambridge cemeteries
have now been documented on our web site. Only nine graves in France,
within the Epinal and Lorraine cemeteries, remain to be photographed and
complete the record for all European burial sites.
U.S. grave
sites are slowly being documented as they are located. This task is much
more difficult as some burials are known only to be within a given
state. Volunteer photographers for those burials that have a known city
and cemetery are being sought and 14 such requests are now outstanding.
LACE UP YOUR BOOTS – Fred Hoek of the
Netherlands wrote recently that the Annual March in The Footsteps Of The
82nd Airborne Division was to be held on Feb. 23rd. The start was at the
Noirfontain farm in Lierneux, Belgium where the intrepid hikers were
served lunch in 2007.
This year’s
sojourn focused on the trails of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment
and the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion.
LAST GLIDER TO FRANCE –
Plans are being laid to refurbish and tow a CG-4A WACO glider to
Normandy in June 2009. The flight via tow craft and the silent landing
on a Norman LZ is to be a living tribute to the men of the Normandy
Invasion Glider Forces. This may be the very last opportunity to pay a
fitting tribute to the allied glider pilots and the men who flew with
them. |
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SEND NEWS FOR THE COLUMN
TO:
Dick O’Donnell
760 Conestee Drive
Melbourne, FL 32904
PH: (321) 759-6174
e-mail:
Jumpmaster@508PIR.org
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