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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2007 1:33:24 GMT 8
Hello, My name is Jason Wolcott. I'm a member of the WWII Airborne Demonstration Team. I'm trying to get into conatct with members or family members of 503rd. veterans. I'm wondering if the vets still gather for reunions because I'd like to try to arrange for the Team to make a demo jump for them at their next reunion (if they still gather). We just did a jump in Birmingham, Al. for the 508th. (82nd.) It was a great jump and the vets loved it as they always do. I've always admired the fellas of the 503rd. and it's my opinion that their actions in the Pacific sometimes get overlooked or over shadowed by the ETO.
Thanks again and have a great day! Jason Wolcott WWII ADT
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Post by EXO on Aug 29, 2007 9:55:51 GMT 8
Jason,
There's a reunion coming up in September, and I will pass your message along to my most immediate trooper contacts.
They're getting pretty immobile now, though - and rarer.
Being only a Regimental Combat Team, they were pretty much orphans for most of the war.They liked their repute as "Col. Jones and his 3000 Thieves" and thus were a pretty small group, post war, in comparison with the great divisional strengths of the ETO. Their Association remains close-knit, very reticent concerning outsiders (and even the official US Army , and still maintains a Last Man Standing policy. So at some point in the immediate future, unless there is a change, the last man standing will have to turn out the lights.
The Heritage Bn is an orphan effort too, to illuminate the 503's experiences and accomplishments. It's only a candle.
The two greatest secrets of the war, the troopers joke, with a hint of seriousness, were the Manhattan Project, and that there were paratroopers fighting the Japanese in the Pacific.
Don't hesitate to put any link to your team's own accomplishments on this board.
exo
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2007 0:28:52 GMT 8
Thank you for the reply. I know that these reunions are getting far and few between, especially for the Regimental Combat Teams like the 503rd. I doubt that we'd be able to put together a jump next month as we are commited to other venures over the next two months. This is something that I sure would like to work on as being a possibility for their next reunion. Any assistance in getting this put together would be greatly appreciated. Our website is www.wwiiadt.org. You can see who we are and what we do. I sure hope that we can put a jump together for these fellas in the not too distant future. Thanks again! Jason
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2007 1:43:33 GMT 8
Here is a "History" link on our Team site. We have several writings on the 503rd. listed in there. Jason
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Post by Amber on Apr 30, 2008 4:27:49 GMT 8
I seen this post and I would like to get ahold of EXO and see if I could get any information on the reunions? My grandfather was a paratrooper in the 503rd and has since passed on. I know at one time there was a newsletter that he received and it had information about the reunions. I did attend a reunion with him in Nevada and I know there was alot of family members that attended. I am trying to research my grandfathers past in the military so any help that I could get would be great. His name is Victor Erdahl.
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Post by David Castillo on Aug 20, 2008 3:20:28 GMT 8
Hello: My name is David Castillo and I am the son of Sisto Castillo, a WWII 503rd PRCT veteran. I attended my first reunion with my Dad back in 1983 and have been invloved with them ever since. I have met most of the memebers of the 503rd at one reunion or another. I still receive the Static Line which has all the information on all the reunions. If anybody needs any information on this outfit that I can provide, please email me and I will forward any information that I have.
David C. Castillo
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Post by Amber on Aug 21, 2008 1:33:47 GMT 8
Thank you for your post, I would like information if you have it on the reunions. I couldn't figure out how to get your email address so if you could email me at amziganatyahoo.com that would be great. Again i really appreciate it.
Thanks Amber
To prevent spambots from harvesting e-mail addresses, this post's e-mail address has been modified by the substitution of the word at for the at sign - Admin
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2008 9:14:05 GMT 8
My husband (new member eabert) is a WWII veteran and a career soldier. He jumped onto Corregidor in Feb. 1945 and was with the 503rd, the 462nd Field Artillery battalion, Btry A. He is 86 years old and has told me many memories of Corregidor. Very few men are living and to have a reunion is almost impossible because of advanced age and ill health. My husband now has no short term memory but still remembers some things of long ago. I remember all he has told me.
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Post by Registrar on Oct 31, 2008 10:48:52 GMT 8
Welcome.
I'll pass your info through to Maj. Kline, who is still with us - in New Zealand, of all places. He still gets at the computer from time to time.
He might know someone who knows other e-mail addresses of Battery A men. Could you advise whether your husband spells his Christian name Eugeane or Eugene? [The Templeman roster spells him Eugeane.]
The Impson "twins" [who weren't twins, just born about 11 mths apart] ...yes, Jack and Ammizon. They were both on the Btry A roster. Can your husband clear up something for us? Both of them were reported to have landed 'short' - actually into the water. Yet at a reunion I attended, no one present knew of anyone who had landed directly into the water, and of one thing they were adamant - no man drowned. There had been numerous troopers who had been blown back by the strong winds over the steep cliffs, and who found that it had been easier to go down to the shore and get picked up by a PT boat which had been placed there for that purpose. But no one knew anyone who just splashed straight into the drink. With all that dead weight, they said, you'd go straight to the bottom and stay there, they said. And the US parachutes weren't quick-release like the British ones were.
But no one drowned on the jump.
Our website has a project to write a little about all the men who were killed on Corregidor. Being from Battery A, 462d, does your husband recall any of the circumstances of how these other men from his battery were killed? Thonas BEATTY, Lawrence BRAYTON, George FLETCHER, Curtis LAIN, Clarence W. GALLOWAY, Harvey HUSKEY and Duane LARSEN?
Your husband probably wouldn't remember anything about Harvey HUSKEY, because after the jump, no one ever saw him alive again - or never even saw his body. He literally disappeared until after the war, his body was found by Graves Registration somewhere on Corregidor. Your husband may well have jumped the same plane, and even the same stick as some of these men.
We can't always come and visit, and ask about these memories, so we have to ask you if you could take it upon yourself to help make it so that your husband's recollections and perspectives are not lost.
Registrar
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Post by fots2 on Oct 31, 2008 10:51:52 GMT 8
Hello eabert,
Would you be interested in sharing your husband's memories and photos of his time on Corregidor with us?
I am sure that you will find that this web site (corregidor.org) is the definitive source of all topics related to Corregidor. I can think of no better place to keep his memories alive forever.
Good day.
John
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