A Co., 505th Parachute Infantry KIA Groupong Surprise

[beef]

Allan, not only did you meet Bob Murphy, but have his shirt and a personalized set of wings! You must have led a very good early life to deserve all of that! This forum never ceases to amaze me regarding the items that you see on it. When I was a kid in the 60's, these guys were my heroes.

They inspired me to take the paths that I took.! It's wonderful to hear these stories and see these artifacts.

[Allan H.]

Beef,

 

The shirt and paybook do not belong to me. They in Fritsi's possession. I have only been collecting WWII airborne for about forty years, so I am a relative newbie compared to the guys who started after SPR or BoB.

 

I can tell you that over the years, I was very fortunate to have gotten to meet a lot of legends of WWII airborne- General Yarborough, General Gavin, General Seitz, Colonel Edson Raff, LTC Mark Alexander, Major Dick Winters, Captain Wally Strobel, and many, many others. Most of these people were VERY easy to find and were actually pretty amazed that anyone cared enough to seek them out. For me, it wasn't really until after the 40th anniversary of the airborne that there seemed to be much interest in this aspect of US military History. For me, collecting WWII airborne has been bittersweet because I got to meet so many amazing men. The sad part is that almost all of them are gone now and each year there become fewer and fewer of that greatest generation.

 

Allan

[beef]

That was clearly a great experience to have met those great men. I wish I had been more aggressive about meeting people like that. The opportunity was certainly there. Gen. Yarborough attended my SFQC graduation, I just shook his hand, no conversation. I did get a Yarborough knife a few years ago when they became available to SF "alumni" thru SWC. I was fortunate enough to actually get to know Col. Bob Howard, Col. Lee Mize and CSM Jon Cavaiani.

 

I also served in SF with 2 D-Day vets. One, SGM Bryan McKnight, started with 2nd Ranger Bn., then was Toyed to the SAS or SOE to help with E&E nets for downed flyers shortly before and during/after D-Day. He was the last WW 2 Ranger serving when he retired in 1980. The Ranger Dept. made a big deal of it, sent a Col. to speak. An SFA chapter bears his name.

 

The other, CSM Adrete Pilluti, was with the 508th PIR, 82nd. He made both their jumps and all major engagements with the 508th, in spite of being wounded. He was awarded the French Legion of Honor a couple of years ago and died last year.

[Stretchman89]

I love the photo of the paratroops posing and laying down in front of their plane just before take off! Classic shot of the gear, etc.