Lesser-known paratrooper unit dedicates memorial in France

Posted 3:41PM on Tuesday 23rd July 2002 ( 22 years ago )

NORCROSS, Ga. - The U.S. Army's 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment was nearly forgotten by history until surviving members took matters into their hands and raised funds for a permanent memorial. Organizers of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment Memorial Fund, based in Norcross, were to unveil a life-size statue of a descending paratrooper during a dedication Tuesday near Amfreville, France. For the 52 surviving members expected to be on hand, the recognition is long overdue. "All the things we did went unnoticed because we were not part of the regular 82nd (Airborne Division)," said Carson Smith of Lilburn. "It will let people know who we were." The regiment, activated at Fort Benning in 1942, was a last-minute attachment to the 82nd Airborne. Its commander was captured at Normandy, but after the Allied liberation of France, the 507th was reassigned to the 17th Airborne Division. When the Army dissolved the 17th Airborne at the end of the war, members say, the 507th faded into the past. By the end of World War II, the 507th had been a part of four campaigns and 11 battles. More than half of the regiment's roughly 2,000 troopers never returned home. Nearly 900 were injured. Two members of the memorial fund's board have died. Another board member, Robert Rae, has suffered two heart attacks and is confined to a wheelchair. He was defying doctor's orders to attend Tuesday's ceremony. "We wanted to get this monument made before we lost all of them," Smith said. "For a while, it looked like we might be running out of time." The U.S. government doesn't build memorials for regiments, said Martha Sell, chief of operations for the American Battle Monuments Commission. "Because of the many thousands of small units that fought during WWII, the policy was to stop at the division level," she said. Painful memories kept many veterans, such as retired Maj. Gen. Paul Smith, from returning to Normandy. When he finally went three years ago to bury the recently discovered remains of his comrades, the former battalion chief was dismayed to see scant mention of the 507th at the Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mere-Eglise. "I saw 505, 508, but no 507," he said. "I thought we ought to start a movement that at least lets people know we were in the area." The memorial fund, led by retired Col. Frank Naughton of Norcross, has raised more than $300,000. It is now trying to establish a $40,000 trust fund to maintain the half-acre site. The 14-tall monument salutes the French people, the 82nd Airborne and the 17th Airborne. But at the memorial's heart is the granite paratrooper whose outstretched boot appears ready to touch the ground, Paul Smith said. "It's the beginning of the end of the war," Smith said. "It's the beginning of the end of Hitler. The beginning of the invasion."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/7/192184