"There was a layer of dust on our fatigues, in our ears and on our faces even
before we woke up to face the sun of the 16th February 1945. The tents had
been dropped the prior day, making us recognize once more that we were just
temporary residents of that flat and grassless plain. Sleeping on canvas cots
in the open, we woke up soon after the sun rose, for there was work to be
done. Also rising was the temperature, and with it the wind and
the
dust. We had bathed and washed our fatigues in the Bugsanga River the day
before, and our bodies and fatigues would not be clean again until 9 March
when the lucky ones would have another chance to bathe and wash - in the very
same
river. Only then, and for the rest of our lives, there would be many friends
absent. Sadly, many who arose that morning would never bathe or wash their
clothes again, and would be buried in their filthy, salt encrusted fatigues.
But the great day had dawned."
bill
calhoun
"Rovolis and I were tearing down
our part of the tent, and he found a
war-time penny. I told him that he'd found his luck
but he
replied that he had his luck and gave the penny to me. After we got on the plane Fitzhugh gave everyone a Tampa
Nugget Cigar which we jumped
with. The order of our stick was Gulsvick, Rovolis Mosolini, High, Hicks,
Marcus, and Millican. Hicks was a new replacement who had come over recently
as a replacement in the grade of sergeant. Like many others he had taken a
voluntary reduction."
Fitzhugh
Millican
F
COMPANY HISTORY
2/15/45 All of the
company briefed for the mission. We have the honor of jumping and
recapturing
Corregidor. General MacArthur has sent his blessing and wishes God's
speed.
MacArthur
summed up our feelings well, and to be selected as the main force which would
retake our great island fortress, this symbol of our might, was a great honor.
We knew it. Everybody felt it was a great honor. We were at our best, and we
were the best. Now after all the frustrations, missions planned
and missions cancelled, we could truly say we were 'proud we were allowed to be
one of the crowd of the parachute infantry.'
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