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82nd Airborne Band WW2


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I tried searching around for info on the 82nd Airborne Band during WWII and could not find much. If anyone has any info please share! This soldier was in the band I believe but I could not find much info on him either.

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His obit says he was a Seventh Day Adventists which might explain him being in the band.

Possibly not sure why he would have to be glider qualified if so.

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Looks like the band might have been at Bastogne

 

"The 28th Infantry Division Band was not the only band involved in the Battle of the Bulge. The 101st Airborne helped hold on to Bastogne preventing it from falling to the Germans. The 82nd Airborne Division Band was caught in the battle after being sent to the Ardennes for R & R. The 82nd front line was stretched thin. The 82nd Airborne Band joined the depleted front line to hold off the German spearhead. The band helped hold off two German Infantry Divisions and a Panzer Division."

 

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/engforum/index.php?/topic/4347-army-bands-in-wwii/

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Also depends did he initially enlist in the band branch or did he transfer over at the end of the war. Im sure there was tons of parades and outings where the airborne band wouldve played post war

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Sure looks like battle stars on his ribbon bar, musicians insignia now that it interesting. But why does he have officer style musician lower insignia, with upper EM pattern disc above

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I believe I talked to a member of the 82nd band at a reunion in the 80's and I'm pretty sure he said they were used as recon troops in combat, I'm not positive so I may be wrong.

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There is plenty of need for a band when not in combat, besides playing at troop formations and formal occasions, bands also performed often times at meals to provide music while the soldiers ate dinner. When in combat, bandsmen were often times married up with their parent unit's medical troops and would be used as stretcher bearers and to perform other duties to free up the trained medical staff for more important matters.

 

I knew a veteran who had been in the 101st A/B band in WWII who earned a Silver Star for evacuating wounded soldiers off the battlefield. He said his mother felt better that he was "away from the fighting and in the band" until she was informed of her son's heroics. She evidently felt that her son had lied to her about not being in combat risking his neck.

 

Allan

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