75 years ago my 20 year old dad was dropped in Normandy

[MaryMagdaline]

58. Fixing the glitches

My military history was fuzzy and I apologize. My brother wrote more about the 507th. This fixes the misinformation I previously posted. He dropped with 82nd Airborne on D-Day. It was the 17th Airborne he dropped with after D-Day. The following are my brother's words:

"The 507th / 82nd stayed on the line for 33 days in some of the most bitter, intense, and relentless combat of the entire war. Dad said that he fought alongside some the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment troops of the 82nd and held them in high regard.

I've read various sets of numbers over the years so I'll round them off here. The 507th jumped with about 2,700 paratroopers. When they were relieved from the line after 33 days, about 900 troopers were able to walk to the beaches and load out on the LSTs. The 507th was badly decimated, and its officer corps nearly annihilated in Normandy. Subsequently it was detached from the 82nd and assigned to be the veteran cadre of the newly forming 17th Airborne Division. The 507th earned a Presidential Unit Citation in Normandy. The 507th did one more combat jump with the 17th Airborne, That was Operation Varsity where they jumped into Germany near the Rohr River industrial pocket.

Dad was a parachute rigger as a Technical Sergeant. Partly because of this, and the need for combat veterans, he was able to transfer into the 508th and jump into Holland in September and later transferred to the 505th to serve with them in The Bulge. He was back with the 507th for their final combat jump in March 1945. After the war the 507th and the entire 17th Airborne Division were decommissioned. That has always saddened me that the records of these men, and their achievements, were relegated to some musty footlocker in storage somewhere. When I have spoken to veterans who served with the 82nd more recently and mention the 507th, they've never heard of it. The 325th is still around but are paratroopers now, not glider infantry. In an ARMY /NAVY football game recently, ARMY wore WWII themed football uniforms. It made my heart proud to see the 507th."