Column Extract - September 1991

It seems that one of the trademarks of The Negros mission was that only a very few people in the 503rd knew where they were at any given time, and most of the Troopers never knew where they were at any time.  Hugh Breslin unfolded the story to me of how he got assigned to the 503rd. According to Hugh there were a number of new arrivals debarking from LCI's on the beach at Leyte and were scheduled to report to the replacement depot at Tacloban. According to Hugh a colonel came striding across the beach towards the some 165 troopers assembled there and told them to get on an LCI pulled up to shore a little further down the beach. Of course when you have just landed in a strange place in a theater of war operations and a colonel tells you to go somewhere and to do something, you usually follow orders. So, quite naturally and predictably, the group of replacements did exactly what they were told to do by this unknown colonel, who, of course, at that time was Colonel Jones. So, all of this group ended up in the 503rd, and according to Hugh, he found out later that they had all been originally heading for the 11th Airborne Division. 

I asked General Jones about the incident, and he told me that there was no truth in the story whatsoever. But, as you well know, our memories have ways of playing tricks on us. I'd be more than glad to hear from anyone who can back-up either side of this little anecdote.

©  John D. Reynolds 2000 All Rights Reserved

  READ ON.../2