Tucker's Troopers

Colonel Dunn’s 504^th Parachute Infantry Regiment was the first parachute infantry regiment to become an integral part of the division. That same day another group of recent qualified paratroopers was assigned to the regiment. One of these men was 2^nd Lieutenant Roy M. Hanna from Castanea Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania. Born on September 11, 1916, he graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1939 with a B.S. in food science. A year later, on the 21^st of October 1940, Hanna joined the Pennsylvania National Guard, the 28^th Infantry Division, as a private.

Because of his college background Hanna was soon made corporal and climbed up through the non-commissioned officers ranks until he was a staff sergeant in early 1942. By this time he got bored of the 28^th Infantry Division and “the only way you could get out of the 28^th Division was to go to OCS, so I went to OCS.”[1] On March 13 Hanna started his officers’ training and exactly three months later he received his discharge as a staff sergeant from the U.S. Army and was commissioned as second lieutenant. Three days later he arrived at the Parachute School in Fort Benning and he got through jump training all right.

The day 2^nd Lieutenant Roy Hanna received his jump wings, August 15, he found himself assigned to the Machine Gun Platoon of Headquarters Company, 3^rd Battalion, 504^th Parachute Infantry Regiment. His platoon leader was 1^st Lieutenant Francis W. Deignan. Hanna later recalled of joining the regiment and the 82^nd Airborne Division:

“Much has been written about the accomplishment of the 82^nd Airborne Division during World War Two. But, very little has been written about the short training it had as a Division before entering the war. I became a member of the 3^rd Battalion, 504^th Parachute Infantry Regiment in August 1942 when this Regiment was a separate unit located at Fort Benning, Georgia. The 82^nd Infantry Division, at that time located at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, was reactivated as an Airborne Division – also in August 1942.

In October 1942 the 82^nd was moved from Camp Claiborne, Louisiana to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It was at this time that the 504^th and 505^th Parachute Infantry Regiments were moved to Fort Bragg to join the Division bringing it up to full combat strength.

In a comparatively short time, under some great leadership, this division was whipped into shape, trained to be ready for combat, and developed an amazing esprit de corps. Even though I was part of this training I still don’t know how it was done.”[2]

It wasn’t long after Lieutenant Hanna had joined the regiment that Major General Matthew Ridgway came by with several of his senior staff officers to meet Colonel Theodore Dunn and the 504^th Parachute Infantry Regiment. They were welcomed with the standard military courtesy. Ridgway told Colonel Dunn that he desired to make a parachute jump even though he had never jumped before. Dunn assigned the small Major Warren R. Williams Jr. (West Point 1938) of the 1^st Battalion the task of instructing the division commander and his staff officers for about half an hour of basic instruction and demonstration on the proper jump training. Williams also supervised some jumps from a raised platform and mock-up planes and a rudimentary briefing of several minutes on how to operate the risers of an opened parachute.

The whole ‘course’ took about two hours. Major General Ridgway became “a little nervous” as the training progressed and he entered the C-47 on the runway to make his first parachute jump.[3] A photo was made on the tarmac of the general and his staff officers in jump suits. Divided into two sticks an equal number of C-47’s took off and approached the DZ in Alabama. Major Williams acted as jump master of the Ridgway’s stick. The drop went well and after landing Ridgway considered himself “a parachutist of sorts”, although he was still not qualified as a paratrooper.[4]

While their division commander had made only one parachute jump – the only one he would make before going overseas - the men of the 504^th Parachute Infantry Regiment made five qualifying jumps at the Parachute School before joining the regiment and the 82^nd Airborne Division. Sergeant Ernest W. Parks, one of the original members of D Company, grew up in Forsyth County, North Carolina where he was born in 1922. In the early summer of 1940 Parks graduated from high school and went with one of his friends to the local army recruitment office. They applied for army service on Hawaii. The local recruiter couldn’t promise that they would be sent to Hawaii, so they left disappointed.

A few weeks later, on the 2^nd of July, Parks and his friend tried again at another recruiting office. Again the recruiter told them that he couldn’t offer them a service place in Hawaii. Just as they were heading to the door, the recruiting sergeant changed his mind. He stopped the two possible recruits and told them that he had forgotten a recent request from Hawaii for two young soldiers to start enlistment training. Contrary to what he had said, the sergeant wanted to sign them up for the field artillery. The trick worked: Parks and his friend signed their enlistment papers and received orders to report in Camp Jackson, South Carolina.

It was after about ten days that Private Parks began to wonder when they would be sent to Hawaii. He approached the drill sergeant and asked him for their departure date. Half drunk, the sergeant remarked with an annoyed loud voice: “What the HELL are you talking about? Who told you, you’re going to Hawaii?” Parks gave a sheepish reply: “Who? My recruiter did.” The drill sergeant looked at him for a few moments and started to laugh. Parks suddenly realized why: he would never go to Hawaii.

Not willing to spent all his army days in the field artillery, for which he hadn’t volunteered, Parks decided to sign up in early 1942 for something he did want to volunteer for: the paratroops. A few weeks passed until he was transferred to Fort Benning to attend the Parachute School:

“I had been in training in Fort Benning, Georgia, for only a week or so, when I was ordered to report to a certain officer. I had no idea what lay ahead. The officer presented a letter written to him by my former commanding officer recommending me highly. The officer to which I now reported told me to learn everything I could during training, for afterwards, I would be offered the jump master position with a promotion to the rank of sergeant.

He was more than a little shocked when I told him I did not want to give an immediate answer. As it turned out, when landing on my fifth jump which qualified me for my wings and status as a paratrooper, I broke a small bone in my foot. This circumstance would have post-phoned this position for an indefinite period of time. Meanwhile, I was not sure I wanted to go up every day, for the number of jumps per day was uncertain in the C-47 aircraft known as the ‘Flying Boxcar’.

In one of my first jumps while qualifying to be a paratrooper, one of the plane’s engines conked out. It appeared to be no big deal to land and immediately board another plane for the jump. But, I honestly began to believe the airborne had braver men then myself. I also believed that a living dog is better than a dead lion.”[5]

Private Edward P. Haider spent his childhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was born in 1921. Along with four of his friends he walked to the local enlistment office on a warm day in late June of 1942. Haider had been in high school for two years but didn’t want to remain at home while he found himself old enough to serve his country. The old recruiting sergeant asked them which branch they preferred:

“Not knowing any better and wanting to show my bravado, I said, “How about the parachute troops?” I figured this was something new and not many fellas went into that. I figured I would give it a try.”[6]

The sergeant handed them enlistment papers which they needed to fill in and had their fathers sign it as they were all under age eighteen. Haider managed to convince his father to sign the enlistment papers and returned to the recruiting office the next day. There he found that he was the only one to return – so much for his patriotic friends! But two of them did deliver their enlistment papers the next day and together they were inducted into the army two days later at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.