M-7 MISSION TO TOPSIDE _________________ John D. Reynolds |
For many years, I have compiled and written a column in Don Lassen's great STATIC LINE newspaper. The name of the column is THREE WINDS OF DEATH, and during the course of the years it has granted me countless opportunities to learn and write of extraordinary episodes which occurred during the retaking of Corregidor - and not just one those of the 503d PRCT. One of those episodes, involving 3rd Plt. Cannon Co., 34th Inf. Reg. (with the 3rd battalion, 34th for this operation) began with my receiving a letter from Bill Roseboro of Halet, NC: |
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"I'm a STATIC LINE subscriber, and that is where I got your name and address. Before getting to the purpose of my letter, a bit about myself. I am a former trooper, but don't go back to the WWII days. In fact, I had almost 20 years service before I went to jump school. That was in 1966, and I stayed on jump status from then until my retirement in 1971. I have served with XVIII Abn Corps Arty, 82nd Airborne Div., (1st Bn, 505th Airborne Inf), 173rd Abn Bgde, (3rd Bn, 319th Abn Arty), 3rd SF Group, and HHC, XVIII Airborne Corps. In 1950 and 1951 served with 'A" Battery,11th Field Artillery and with Company �G� 19th Infantry, 24th Infantry Division. This brings me to the point of my letter. Last month I attended the annual 24th Infantry Division reunion, held this year in Savannah, Georgia. While there I had the pleasure of meeting William Hartman, who was with Cannon Company in WWII. Bill is an old Artilleryman, having served back in the horse-drawn Artillery. During my conversation with him he mentioned being in action on Corregidor at the time of the parachute assault by the 503d Parachute Infantry. This is how he told the story to me. I hope I'm reasonably accurate. I only jotted down a couple of notes, so this is mostly from memory: |
Hartman and those who accompanied him had done a tremendous job and very likely saved some lives of troopers who required the blood plasma. I, of course, answered Bill's letter and sent him a copy of pages 119 and 120 from Gerard Devlin's book BACK TO CORREGIDOR, which chronicled Hartman's mission of mercy. In my THREE WINDS OF DEATH Column, I invited either or both of the two troopers, if they were still alive, to contact me. (I also reminded Bill Roseboro that the term �cut-off" was not exactly the proper way to describe the situation of the 503d.)
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