
Down in Ohio shooting the Breeze with Ray Brenneman F co 511th PIR for his 100th birthday. Still going strong
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Operating as usual
Down in Ohio shooting the Breeze with Ray Brenneman F co 511th PIR for his 100th birthday. Still going strong
I want to wish a very happy 100th birthday to one of the last living original members of the 511th PIR, T/5 Ray Brenneman was with the regiment at its founding, fought in the leyte mountains, jumped Tagaytay ridge and was wounded twice in the battle of Manila
Been plugging away on my rosters at a rapid pace!
H co was finished last night, working on medical co next!
HQ1 ✅
A co ✅
B co ✅
C co ✅
HQ2 ✅
D co ✅
E co ✅
F co ✅
H co ✅
I co ✅
The regiments nearly done now!
With the ongoing roster project I can now do casualty statistics for each company I complete. I quickly learned that every company so far has exceeded 100% of its original compliment of 125-130 men. Full disclosure, a large percentage of casualties that are not killed in action eventually returned to their unit. And many of the “sent to hospitals” are the result of after-effects from wounds and injuries so that likely explains the large percentage of men sent to hospital. More company stats will be posted as more companies are completed!
Another one down! My third company roster of the 511th PIR is done, 12 more companies to go. This roster includes all members of the company from the beginning of Leyte to landing in Japan and is considerably larger than the rosters listed online. Using morning reports, general orders, & special orders this roster includes
Dates of joining the company (and the SO they joined from)
All ranks held and when
Serial numbers
Wounds and deaths
Awarded CIB and when
hospital visits, other assignments and desertions
C co had 26 officers and 252 enlisted-men
31 deaths
3 MIA
109 wounded in action
42 injured in action
137 hospital visits
6 AWOLS
2 Arrested
181 rejoins (some from temp assignments)
On to now tackle first battalion headquarters.
Another one down! My second company roster of the 511th PIR is done, 13 more companies to go. This roster includes all members of the company from the beginning of Leyte to landing in Japan and is considerably larger than the rosters listed online. Using morning reports, general orders, & special orders this roster includes
Dates of joining the company (and the SO they joined from)
All ranks held and when
Serial numbers
Wounds and deaths
Awarded CIB and when
hospital visits, other assignments and desertions
A co had 23 officers and 246 enlisted-men
17 deaths
113 wounded in action
23 injured in action
159 hospital visits
155 rejoins (some from temp assignments)
On to C co for now and then tackle first battalion headquarters.
Veteran jumpers of the 511th watch student jumpers landings at the lipa jump school. Summer 1945
ITS ALIVE! My first company roster of the 511th PIR is done, 14 more companies to go. This roster includes all members of the company from the beginning of Leyte to landing in Japan and is considerably larger than the rosters listed online. Using morning reports, general orders, & special orders this roster includes
Dates of joining the company (and the SO they joined from)
All ranks held and when
Serial numbers
Wounds and deaths
Awarded CIB and when
hospital visits, other assignments and desertions
B co had 30 officers and 239 enlisted-men
13 deaths
94 wounds in action
54 injured in action
113 hospital visits
119 rejoins (some from temp assignments)
4 AWOLs
On to the rest of first battalion for now and then complete the entire 511th
H co men at the conclusion of the Leyte campaign Dec 27 1944. James Kolkman is in the back row center
On January 5th 1943 80 years ago the 511th Parachute infantry Regiment was formed at Camp toccoa Georgia. Thousands of men answered Col Haugens Call for “the best”. The War claimed 301 of them, Time has taken the rest save 4.
With heavy heart I announce the loss of Stanley Young of Mena. S/Sgt Young was a Mortarman in HQ1, survived Leyte and Luzon, jumped Tagaytay and aparri and was present at the los Baños raid. He was the last man standing not only for his company, but the entirety of First battalion and the very last los Baños raider.
Another chapter closed
With heavy heart I announce that Company B’s last survivor Jim Wilson passed away weeks shy of age 101. A 1943 original Wilson is also the last verified 511th trooper that jumped Los Baños POW camp and the last trooper to make all 3 jumps of the regiment (Tagaytay, los Baños, Aparri). Just one los Baños raider is still with us
National Medal of Honor Day: PVT Elmer E. Fryar of E-511
On December 8, 1944, after weeks of combat the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment/s 2nd Battalion was attacked outside Mahonag by Japanese soldiers who opened up with machine guns in the mountains of Leyte.
Easy Company effectively covered the battalion’s extraction and when the enemy pressed in, thirty-year-old PVT Elmer E. Fryar from Denver, CO went into action. T/5 Neal A. Retherford was near Elmer and said, "I had been wounded by a hand gr***de and was bleeding quite badly. Fryar was on the extreme right and he yelled and pointed out that the Japanese were trying a flanking movement. There were between 40 and 50 of them."
Retherford continued:
"Fryar went forward alone to the top of a ridge and took up his position there to cover the withdrawal of the rest of the company. He opened up with his M1 rifle. There was a lot of firing and soon he came back and found me. He put a tourniquet on my arm and leg while the lead was flying all around us. He said he got plenty of them. He figured about half of them, anyway. He helped me down the trail and we met (1LT Norvin L. “Stinky” Davis) leading a wounded (PFC Marvin D. Douglas)."
Retherford later noted "As we helped each other down the trail, a Japanese jumped up from behind some bushes and aimed his rifle at the lieutenant. The other wounded man (Douglas) and I hit the ground, but Private Fryar moved past us and threw himself in front of the lieutenant."
1LT Davis said, “Private Fryar came from behind me and threw himself into the line of fire. There were seven bullet holes in his chest and stomach, but he drew a hand gr***de as he fell to the ground and pulled the pin (killing the enemy)."
It was the twenty-seventh enemy Elmer killed that day.
Davis added, "He died before aid could be brought to him. But as he lay there with a smile on his face, he asked us to write his to his folks and tell them he'd got a mess of the enemy before they got him."
For his heroic actions and sacrifice, Elmer was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
To learn more about PVT Elmer Fryar, please visit http://511pir.com/enlisted-biographies/268-pvt-elmer-fryar-medal-of-honor
AATW! -JCH
Sgt Harry Yazzie; The fastest man to run Curahee
Born in either 1912 or 1915 (sources disagree) he enlisted in August 1940 and was a founding member of the 511th PIR, 11th Airborne Division. He did his record run of 40 minutes 5 seconds while he was a member of company F in early 1943. He eventually transferred to Company E where he would see combat in Leyte and Luzon. He jumped Tagaytay ridge in February 1945 and He was wounded in Luzon in April 1945. He returned home after the war to become a police officer in the Navajo nation. He passed away in May 2009, leaving behind 4 daughters, 7 grandkids, 9 great grandkids
Type 4 HBT cap
First observed: Lipa Rest camp Luzon summer 1945
“Airborne” tab on front parachute patch on left. Enlisted only, (so far) these caps started appearing in the divisions time at lipa city in June 1945. They were however very uncommon. Example shown: S/Sgt Kenneth Morgan D/511 likely in Japan late 1945 (from Jermey Holm 511PIR.com)
Type 3 HBT Cap
First observed: dobodura New Guinea Summer 1944
“Airborne” Tab on front. Officers wore rank below this. They were uncommon in new Guinea and then reappeared in large numbers in the summer 1945 when the division was stationed in Lipa Luzon. Example shown is a member of D company 511 PIR in dobodura New Guinea Summer 1944 (from Jermey Holm 511PIR.com)
Type 2 HBT cap
First observed: dobodura New Guinea Summer 1944
Parachute patch applied to left side (or in one case on the front). No officers wearing this type have been seen so far. These were worn in combat in both Leyte and Luzon. Seem to have gone away by the summer 1945. Example shown is S/Sgt George T Cushwa D/511 on Luzon April 1945 (from Jermey Holm 511PIR.com)
Type 1 HBT cap
First observed: dobodura New Guinea Summer 1944
Rank patch applied to the front (T/5-S/Sgt Observed) parachute patch on the left. No officers have been seen wearing this type so far. Seems to have been only worn in training during the summer/fall 1944. Example shown T/5 Bob Hubbard Service Co 511 PIR (personal collection)
While swing caps are highly coveted and much discussed amongst collectors and reenactors alike, their predecessor are not mentioned at all. So I thought I’d write a post and share what I know. It’s important to know that the swing cap did not just appear from nowhere. While the generally accepted swing cap is a custom made cap produced in late ww2 into occupation era, what is being discussed today are standard HBT caps that have been patched. As far as I can tell so far, patching HBT caps goes back to when the division first shipped overseas in the summer of 1944. They seem to come in 4 styles which I’ll provide photos of each type in the following post. The photos were chosen mostly for clarity, many cases there are older photos/photos with less attribution. And some of these caps were actually worn in combat.
Jim Holzem of B company passed away last night at the age of 97 leaving Jim Wilson the sole surviving original B company veteran
Robert Hubbard of Service company, 511 PIR was the regiments first overseas causality. He drowned in November 1944 a few weeks before the regiment sailed for the Philippines
Wishing a happy 97th birthday to F company’s Ray Brenneman! Ray is a 1943 original, fought in Leyte and Luzon. Wounded twice in Manila
I’d like to wish a happy 98th birthday to one of the “angels” and personal friend Stanley Young! Stan was a mortar man in headquarters company first battalion from toccoa to Tokyo, 2 combat jumps and the Los Baños raid!
In honor of the 76th anniversary of the raid at Los Baños here’s a map of the Los Baños region. Maps like this one (or perhaps this one?) were carried/used by 511 officers during the planning and ex*****on of the raid
Another chapter closes. Company A’s last living member Earl Rediske passed away on the 5th at the age of 96. Earl was part of the famous raid at Los Baños. The ranks grow thinner
I’ve been saddened to learn that James Kolkman of H company passed away earlier this week at 96 years old . This leaves just one survivor of H company still living
In honor of the 76th anniversary of the Tagaytay jump I thought I’d share the journal of Sgt Jim Massey G/511 about the events of the day
Although not as well known as other officers in First Battalion, 511th parachute infantry regiment. only one can claim he made it “all the way”, that man being Major Thomas A Mesereau. Born in 1921 in New Jersey, Mesereau was a 1943 graduate of West Point and was a founding member of E/511. By Leyte he was Charlie company’s CO. Captain Mesereau was instrumental in the survival of his company following the disasterous November 27th ambush which left his company alone and surrounded for several days awaiting rescue from the rest of the regiment. Keeping his men together he ordered ammo be saved and Japanese gr***des be thrown back whenever possible. The West Point football player lead by example and risked his own life throwing Japanese gr***des back himself. With Leyte behind them C company and Captain Mesereau landed on Luzon and fought in the Manila campaign. On February 23rd 1945 Mesereau lead his company on the Los Baños raid. Going ashore with the Amtrak’s his company engaged Japanese forces along the raids western flank, keeping the Japanese at bay for the duration of the raid and being amongst the last Troops to withdraw. Now Major Mesereau lead his Charlie company through the malepunyo and aparri campaigns to become the only commanding officer in first battalion to keep his command the entire time through combat. Mesereau was very well liked amongst his troops, preferring to call his men by their first names and asking the same was done for him. He often listened to the advice of his enlisted men. In japan he commanded the famous honor guard that guarded General Douglas MacArthur And was on the battleship Missouri for Japan’s surrender. Major Mesereau passed away in 1986.
The fates of other First Battalion COs is as follows
Captain William “mother” Bostwick HQ1 was KIA 2/13/45 in Manila
Captain Tom Brady A co died of his wounds following a gunshot to the head on 12/2/44 on Leyte
Captain Philip Urlich B co was relived for medical reasons following the conclusion of the Leyte campaign
The last jump
75 years ago Today June 23rd 1945 the men of task force Gypsy began a long plane ride from Lipa City to aparri in northern Luzon. 1020 men from 1st battalion 511th parachute infantry regiment, Companies G & I of the 511th, the demo platoon from HQ&HQ company, along with support elements from the 127th airborne engineers, 221st medical company, and the 457th FA and others boarded 54 C-47s and 14 C-46s. Their objective was to push down the Cagayan valley and link up with the 37th infantry division completely choking out the last resistance on Luzon. For the first time in the pacific 7 gliders would be employed, each carrying jeeps for the various support units inside “task force gypsy”.
After a pre dawn loading (which included visits from general Krueger and general swing) the troopers Unenthusiastically loaded into their aircraft. For many weekends leave in Manila, and attendance to the upcoming army navy game in Manila was far more important than a “newspaper stunt by general MacArthurs headquarters”. General swing himself was even cursed out by one of his own troopers before takeoff.
After a nearly 3 hour ride the troopers approached their target, an empty field a few miles from the coast. The jump itself was extremely hazardous, due to 25 mile an hour winds and the bone dry hard ground the paratroopers would find themselves landing in. 2 troopers were killed in the jump and an additional 75 or so wounded. One of those wounded, 96 year old Stanley Young of HQ1 511 spoke with me briefly today about the aparri operation. “Our parachutes spun wildly, when I tried to land I hit the top of a plowed field and my chute blew me face first into the hard packed ground” Stanley was quickly helped by other 511 troopers and put in a sling, after that he was evacuated by the 60th general hospital ending his time in the operation.
For those not dead or wounded what followed was a 10 day mop up operation in northern Luzon, few if any troopers ever fired a shot in anger as Japanese resistance had already crumbled. All said and done the task force killed roughly 8 Japanese soldiers in their 10 days before being withdrawn back to lipa city, to train and prepare for the jump on japan that was never to happen.
I wanna take a moment to recognize the last living troopers of this operation
Stanley Young HQ1 511
John Malejan B co
Jim Wilson B co
Henry Kusmierczyk C co
James Humphreys I co
Photos are from Carl Maydans