11th Airborne Division – rumors fly
The intensity of the Air Corps Troops Carrier Group’s training and the establishment of the division’s 3rd parachute school at Lipa, Luzon started many rumors floating about the division area.
The more practical savants had the division jumping ahead of the forces invading Japan; others thought China a more obvious choice; and still other amateur strategists thought that Formosa would make a fine DZ. But, of course, none of these courses of action was to be.
At the end of July, Gen. Swing called John Conable into his makeshift office in a schoolhouse outside Lipa. Gen. Swing introduced Conable to an Air Corps Major. The Major asked Conable how many planes it would take to move the division about 800 air miles. Conable remembers:
I asked General Swing how many units of fire he wanted. He said figure on a quarter of a unit. To say that I was surprised is a major understatement. The Old Man never wanted to go anywhere without at least two units of fire.
Then the General added: “Be sure to bring the band in one of the early serials.” The Major and I went back to my desk. I got out the plans I had for Olympic.
While he was looking at them, I excused myself and went into the map room. It was just 800 miles from Okinawa to Tokyo! Both the Major and I were worried about gasoline. A C-46 or 47 didn’t have enough fuel capacity to make a 1,600 mile round trip. He left with the number of men, weight, and volume of mortars, jeeps, etc. No more was said.
But the incident caused Major Conable to consider that there was definitely “something different in the wind.” And indeed there was!!
The 5th Air Force (FEAF) were operating in both the CBI Theater and still on Luzon to support the ground forces, along with the USMC. All the existing units of the Air Corps in the Pacific were in motion at this time; moving their bases to more effective locations.
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Military Humor – When the WAC’s took over! Humor by: Pfc Everett Smith in New Guinea
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Farewell Salutes –
Matthew Brown – Massapequa, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Co. F/152 Artillery/11th Airborne Division
Donald Edge – Fayetteville, NC; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT
Brian Garfield – Tucson, AZ; US Army / author of: “The Thousand-Mile War”
Joe Jackson – Newman, GA; US Air Force, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, Col. (Ret. 32 y.), U-2 pilot, Medal of Honor
Robert Leroy – Langley, WA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, HQ/3/511/11th Airborne Division
Jeremy Nash – ENG; British Navy, WWII, ETO, weapons officer HMS Proteus, Commander (Ret.)
Alfred K. Newman – Bloomfield, NM; USMC, WWII, PTO, Code Talker, 1/21/3rd Marine Division
Elmer Patrick – Monticello, IN; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Co. F/188/11th Airborne Division
Clarence Strobel – Stockton, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Co. F/ 188th/11th Airborne Division
Michael C. Vasey Sr. – Roseburg, OR; US Army, Vietnam, Military Police, Lt. Colonel (Ret. 20 y.), 2 Bronze Stars
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Posted on January 17, 2019, in First-hand Accounts, SMITTY, Uncategorized, WWII and tagged 11th airborne, 1940's, Airborne, family history, History, Military, Military History, Pacific War, WW2, WWII. Bookmark the permalink. 95 Comments.
As always interesting read about this division, and the video was high quality. Next time you flight in one of those WW2 bombers you might think to……jump! With a parachute of course and we can throw in a instructor also. Ever thought about it?
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I’ve thought about it. 🙂
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I remember the late GHW Bush, the man was jumping out of airplanes at age 90 I think was his last jump, definitely 80 for sure. I’m not saying you are old by the way, but I am saying that it has to be a great surge of adrenaline and fun. You won’t have the golden army guys (forgot their official name) to strap on to, but hey, you are STILL not president
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Good one Charly, you are sure keeping me laughing today! I’ll have to see what it costs first. (My better-half already thinks I have a death-wish!!)
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A chuckle-5$
A Lugh-10$
But as a good Priest I am don’t worry that I will give it to my….to my own charity
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haha, you are going to have me declaring bankruptcy at those rates, Priest!!
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You’ll be president so you got money from the lobbies, give me!!
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They sure wouldn’t want me for President!! haha Nor would i want it – no matter what you do in that job – you’re wrong!! But if I had money – I’d share.
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Sorry for all the delay responses, between the time gap and other things around me, these disturbing flies….. anyways, GP don´t lie to yourself, but at least lie to me and say you´ll be president that way I can use you to getting a high paying job. So you are my president. I will sing it loud through all Spain, and if the dumb socialist get mad, well we do have ROTA right now in operation with quite some US Marines, so that would be my leverage to get a job in the Spanish versión of Wall Street.
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Okay then – President GP says you deserve to have a high-paying job!!
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I do not agree MR. President,
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I deleted your comment, it seems with my computer hapens,plus I´m a fuck up with this things, apart from that I was a good infantry man, so the deal is sealed,
you jump and i shoot
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Deal
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Thanks for your like of my article, “The Twinkling Of An Eye;” more is on the way!
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You are welcome and I’m glad to hear more is coming.
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Thank you. I really love all of the things that you show on your blog; it really is needed for people today to understand the things that happened during World War II.
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It still affects us today, so I feel it’s worth learning. Thanks.
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Yes. It still affects us today. Please keep up your good work.
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Reminds me of an old story about some children who went on a Sunday School picnic. A little girl asked the teacher where she could ‘go wee’ after drinking too much lemonade; the teacher discreetly showed her a spot behind a suitable bush, but during the process of having to squat down, one little bottom got stung by a nettle.
Upon returning to the picnic, the little girl was asked by a little boy, where he could go have a wee too; the little girl told him and then crept up to watch him get stung on his bottom; he didn’t of course. As he emerged from behind the bush the little girl said in amazement, “That’s a handy thing to take on a picnic,”
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That is cute!! Maureen. Ah, the innocence of youth, eh?!
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I had a friend who’s Army officer husband said that boys had picnic equipment. Lucky boys.,
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They were lucky!
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Last Images are very Humorous!! Very nice!! 😀
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We all need a chuckle!! Thanks for dropping in, Nasuko.
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I think my son calls the eating place the “Defac”, but not sure if I’m hearing correctly as reception is a bit off where he is stationed.
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You are hearing him correctly. DEFAC is an Army acronym for Dining Facility.
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Oh, thank you!
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Always take the band!
I had to look up a lot of places in this blog post, and I’ll eventually learn my way around the Pacific, courtesy of the Pacific Paratrooper.
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That makes my day, Brad!!
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That Joe Jackson certainly worked his way up through the ranks, and then served in 3 wars,Glutton for punishment or adventure perhaps,
That Jeremy Nash at the time of his death was the oldest surviving submariner of WWII I read.
There can’t be too many of any WWII veterans left now.
Soon there will be none
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I know and it really pains me. They are certainly reaching a ripe old age though!
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and who deserves it more?
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🙂
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Reblogged this on The way I see things ….
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Much apprecaited, Lisa!
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Reblogged this on depolreablesunite.
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Thank you, Rick.
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Think of the lives on both sides the A-bombs actually saved
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People today are debating this event with modern eyes and we just can’t do that. I agree with you.
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Hmmm, very interesting.
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I really cannot think of a worse thing to do in WW2 than to parachute onto the sacred soil of the Japanese homeland, a place where children under 10 were being taught how to roll under tanks and other vehicles and then to detonate the grenade they had been issued with. Thank God nobody had to do this kind of thing and a couple of bombs and the threat of the Red hordes was enough to bring about a peaceful end.
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I never learned that the bomb saved my father’s life until after he passed. The tension in these men had to be high!
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When there’s an absence of hard information, gossip, scuttlebutt, and wild imaginings are inevitable. If nothing else, they help to ease anxiety — the unknown can be terrifically hard to deal with.
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You put it well, Linda. The waiting has got to be excruciating.
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My father Frank Valenzuela who served in Japan at war’s end, Passed away last year. I don’t have his company name or info!
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You can still have him in the Salutes, name, town, country, branch of service.
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Sending best wishes for a 2019 filled with good things! Thanks for always being a source of support to me…and for your hard work on your articles. Blessings
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And I hope I’ll always be here for you, Lorrie. Thank you for the good tidings!
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My pleasure😁 Enjoy your weekend💜
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Thank you.
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sad part of history 😦
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WWII is nothing that should be romanticized like Hollywood does, but it should be studied because it not only holds lessons to be learned, but it still affects us today.
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ALL wars GP, good points, keep up the great work!
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I’ll sure try.
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Loved the cartoons, GP. I guess everyone would wonder what is going on prior to the surrender of Japan.
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And the service is always so filled with rumors. Thanks for dropping by, John.
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🙂
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Getting closer and closer to the end of a long, hard fight.
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Slowly – but ever closer……
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Thanks for including Mike.
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It was my honor, Lee. The world lost a good man.
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I can’t imagine ever jumping out of an aeroplane on purpose! Brave chaps.
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I know what you mean.
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Reblogged this on Dave Loves History.
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Thank you for sharing part of my father’s unit’s history, Dave.
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The dangers of scuttlebutt! LOL!
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haha, in this case, how many would have actually come up with the atomic bomb?!!
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Very few I suspect.
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Those must have been very stressful days for the troops and leadership that didn’t know what was coming.
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So few actually knew the truth – it must have been rough.
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Reblogged this on John Cowgill's Literature Site.
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Thank you very much, John.
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You are very welcome very much.
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Long live “Toxic Masculinity”.
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hahaha
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Reblogged this on Subli and commented:
Do you know there was a parachute school in Lipa during WWII?
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The video is from the flying school the 11th Airborne built at Lipa. They were finally getting replacements and they had to be up to speed with the rest of the division.
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I like the video. I wonder if any of the school remains. Got to find out when I go home.
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If it is, please take pictures!! The 11th Airborne newspaper keeps me in touch with Los Banos, so I know that is still around.
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My brother goes home every year. I know he goes to Lipa for food shopping. I’ll get him to do some work for me. hahaha.
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Hey, if you can’t depend on family, who can you? 🙂
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Give him something to do to get away from relatives.
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Funnyyyyyy!!!!
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That is one impressive parade of parachutes going out that plane!
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Isn’t it?! Today’s parachutes make these seem so archaic.
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With all the activities going on in July, one can only assume something big was about to happen.
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They knew something was being planned, but how many would have thought of an atomic bomb?
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How they kept it a secret is amazing. They tested the bomb but nobody knew except for a few select people. Now, you can’t hide anything.
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So true. Tibbets hand-picked 1800 men for his unit in New Mexico, but even those men barely knew – no one spoke to any one else!!
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When there is no concrete information, rumours fly.
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haha, in the service, I think if someone told them out-right exactly what was going on – they wouldn’t believe it!!!
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Curiosity got the better of me! Wonderedwhen the 1st mid-air refueling took place, found this (did not check for validity though, is it right?)—
http://fly.historicwings.com/2012/11/first-aerial-refueling/
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Yes it is and thank you for bringing this article to us!!
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What a relief, that they never had to make that air drop into Japan. Small wonder everyone was concerned about that possibility.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I think the idea of an A-bomb was quite far from anyone’s imagination!! They naturally presumed they’d be jumping somewhere.
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