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   Joe Crilley

Captain Joesph Crilley

RECOLLECTIONS OF A PARATROOPER
by JOSEPH CRILLEY
326th Airborne Engineer Battalion - 101st Airborne Division
Copyrighted
DRAFT #5 (2007)


Now that I have sailed past the ripe young age of 87, I think it is time to put on paper some memories of my experiences in World War II. My time in the service - in retrospect it seems very short - spanned a couple of months short of four years, beginning on the 7thof February 1942 with induction at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

SOME IMPORTANT DATES

Feb 7, 1942      Enlist in US Army; induction at Carlisle, PA

Aug 5,1942       Qualified Parachutist, complete training in Parachute Packing, Ground Training and Jumping from a plane in flight, Fort Belvoir, VA

Nov 21, 1942       Graduate Officer Candidate School, Fort Belvoir, VA Assigned to 56th Engineers, Camp Polk, LA

June 26, 1943       Graduate Second Army Mine School

Sept 5-0ct 18, 1943       Sail from Camp Shanks, NY to Liverpool, England aboard the Strathnaver, changing in St. Johns, NFL to the John Ericson

Dec 5, 1943       Promoted from 2nd Lt to 1 st Lt

June 6, 1944       Normandy jump, "Overlord"

July 9, 1944       Promoted from 1 st Lt to Captain

July 19, 1944       Return to England by boat

Sept 17, 1944       Holland jump, St. Odenrhode, "Market Garden"

Oct 1, 1944       Move to area between the Rhine and Maas rivers

Nov 26, 1944       Return to Mourmelon, France

Dec 19, 1944       Bastogne, Belgium (25 days in Bastogne) Alsace-Lorraine, France (build bridge in Pfaffenhafen)

Jan 16, 1945       Mourmelon, France

Feb 24, 1945       Lt. Eisenhauer, Major Mozley, Birdlegs Dixon Capt. Crilley

April 2, 1945       Neus-Dusseldorf Germany (night swim in the Rhine)

May 4,1945       Berchtesgaden, Germany (Smiley - Goering's Mercedes Benz)

May 8, 1945       Lofer, Austria - War in Europe ends (8 cases cognac, oil ptg)

July 25, 1945       Assigned to Battalion HQ as S-3 (Operations & Training)

July 31, 1945       Auxerre, France (rest, wine & water skiing)

Sept 27, 1945       Boston, MA, USA

Dec 9, 1945       Separation from Army Service at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, P A

Photos

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