The 82nd Airborne Division is an airborne infantry division of the United States Army specializing in parachute assault operations into denied areas with a U.S. Department of Defense requirement to "respond to crisis contingencies anywhere in the world within 18 hours". Based at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, the 82nd Airborne Division is part of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The 82nd Airborne Division is the U.S. Army's most strategically mobile division.
The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed The Triple Nickles, was an all-black airborne unit of the United States Army during World War II.
In military organizations, a pathfinder is a specialized soldier inserted or dropped into place in order to set up and operate drop zones, pickup zones, and helicopter landing sites for airborne operations, air resupply operations, or other air operations in support of the ground unit commander. Pathfinders first appeared in World War II, and continue to serve an important role in today's modern armed forces, providing commanders with the option of flexibly employing air assets.
Lieutenant General William Pelham Yarborough was a senior United States Army officer. Yarborough designed the U.S. Army's parachutist badge, paratrooper or 'jump' boots, and the airborne jump uniform. He is known as the "Father of the Modern Green Berets." He was descended from the Yorkshire House of Yarborough. Yarborough was a distant cousin to such British noble figures as the Baron Deramore, Lord Alvingham, the Duke of Buccleugh and the Marquess of Bath.
The 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment was an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army, formed during World War II. At times the regiment was attached to the 17th Airborne Division, 82nd Airborne Division and later, the 13th Airborne Division. During most of their combat, the unit was an independent combined force of 17th Airborne troops called the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team or 517th PRCT /517th PCT /517th RCT.
The 508th Infantry Regiment is an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army, first formed in October 1942 during World War II. The 508th is a parent regiment under the U.S. Army Regimental System, and two battalions from the regiment are currently active: the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment is assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, and the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment is assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. The regiment served in combat during World War II, and regimental elements have served in combat in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, now the 507th Infantry Regiment, is an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment was initially assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II before transferring to the 17th Airborne Division. Now 1st Battalion, 507th Infantry Regiment is part of the United States Army Infantry School, subordinate to its Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade, responsible for the Army's Basic Airborne School, Jumpmaster School, Pathfinder School, and the "Silver Wings" Command Exhibition Parachute Team.
The 509th Infantry Regiment is an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army. The unit was initially activated as a single battalion, the 504th Parachute Infantry Battalion, in October 1941 at Fort Benning, Georgia. Nicknamed "Geronimo", the 509th conducted the U.S. Army's first combat jump during World War II on 8 November 1942, flying 1,500 miles from England to seize Tafarquay airport in Oran, Algeria. The 509th made a total of five combat jumps during the war.
The 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, originally the 505th Infantry Regiment, is an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army, one of four infantry regiments of the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army, with a long and distinguished history.
The 504th Infantry Regiment, originally the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, is an airborne forces regiment of the United States Army, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, with a long and distinguished history. The regiment was first formed in mid-1942 during World War II as part of the 82nd Airborne Division and saw service in Sicily, Italy, Anzio, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Robert Frederick Sink was a senior United States Army officer who fought during World War II and the Korean War, though he was most famous for his command of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division, throughout most of World War II, in France, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
The 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment was an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army, raised during World War II. The 513th formed part of the 17th Airborne Division and participated in the European Campaign, fighting in the latter stages of the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945 and parachuted into Germany in Operation Varsity in March, in the largest airborne drop of the war. The regiment returned to the United States in September 1945 where it was inactivated.
The 501st Infantry Regiment, previously the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment and 501st Airborne Infantry Regiment, is an airborne forces regiment of the United States Army with a long history, having served in World War II and the Vietnam War, both as part of the 101st Airborne Division, as well as the War in Afghanistan. It is the first airborne unit by designation in the United States Armed Forces. Its 1st Battalion is assigned to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, located at Fort Richardson, Alaska. Its 2nd Battalion is assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, located at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.
James C. Yarbrough is a retired brigadier general in the United States Army.
Geronimo is a United States Army airborne exclamation occasionally used by jumping paratroopers or, more generally, anyone about to jump from a great height, or as a general exclamation of exhilaration. The cry originated in the United States.
Major General William Maynadier "Bud" Miley was a senior United States Army officer and a professor of military science who fought in both World War I and World War II. During the latter, he was one of the early pioneers of airborne warfare and served as Commanding General (CG) of the 17th Airborne Division, leading the division through the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Varsity.
First Sergeant Leonard Alfred Funk Jr. was a United States Army Medal of Honor recipient and one of the most decorated soldiers and paratroopers of World War II. While serving with the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, then part of the 82nd Airborne Division, he also received the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, and three Purple Hearts.
The 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion was, for many years, a little-recognized airborne forces unit of the United States Army, raised during World War II, that fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Originally commissioned to take the French Caribbean island of Martinique, they were shipped instead to Western Europe. With an initial strength of 800 officers and enlisted men, the remaining 250 members of the Battalion were ordered on 7 January 1945 to attack the Belgian village of Rochelinval over open ground and without artillery support. During the successful assault the unit lost more than half its remaining men. The Battalion was inactivated on 27 January 1945 and the remaining 110 survivors were absorbed into the 82nd Airborne Division. Virtually nothing of the unit's history was known to the American public until the 1990s when renewed interest prompted its veterans to seek recognition for their costly success at Rochelinval. The battalion was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation in 2001 recognizing its accomplishment.
The 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment was an airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army, first activated during World War II under Colonel Orin D. "Hard Rock" Haugen. It formed the parachute infantry element of the 11th Airborne Division. The full history of the regiment is the subject of the book, When Angels Fall: From Toccoa to Tokyo, the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II (2019) by author and historian Jeremy C. Holm whose grandfather served in the regiment's Company D during the war.
Howard Ravenscroft Johnson was an officer of the United States Army. He was the commander of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II.
