507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division

507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. "Down to Earth". Constituted as the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), the unit was activated at Fort Benning, Georgia, on 20 July 1942. After conducting basic and advanced airborne training in the United States as part of the 1st Airborne Brigade, the Regiment prepared for deployment. Arriving in Northern Ireland in December 1943, the unit was attached to the 82nd Airborne Division and moved to its cantonment area near Nottingham, England. There, the paratroopers began training in earnest for their role in the upcoming invasion of France. , , In late May, the Regiment moved to its staging area for the invasion, where it received its orders for D-Day. The 507th PIR would jump into a drop zone (DZ) in Normandy, just west of the Merderet River, near Amfreville. Once on the ground, the unit would defend an assigned sector near La Fière and organize to attack westward in order to gain control of the Cotentin Peninsula. The Regiment parachuted into France before dawn on 6 June 1944. En route, the transport aircraft had scattered in consequence of bad weather and anti-aircraft fire, thus causing many paratroopers to miss the planned DZ and instead land in flooded areas east of the Merderet River, where a number drowned. Individually and in small groups, the paratroopers took the fight to the enemy, sometimes with success and other times not. A group led by regimental commander Colonel George V. Millett, cut off from all friendly forces, engaged the enemy unrelieved for three days before, out of options, surrendering. Eighty-Second Airborne Division Commander Major General Matthew B. Ridgeway gave command of the regiment to Colonel Edson D. Raff, who led it through war's end. , , Many troopers in the 507th PIR received decorations for their combat bravery. The Regiment's distinguished service on the Cotentin Peninsula was honored with the Presidential Unit Citation. The French government recognized the unit's achievements at Ste. Mère-Eglise with the Croix de Guerre with Palm and a second award for its subsequent battlefield accomplishments on the Cotentin Peninsula. The 507th PIR completed its combat missions on Cotentin Peninsula on 11 July 1944 and returned to England. , , There, as part of the strategic reserve for American forces in Europe, it joined the newly arrived 17th Airborne Division, with which "Raf’s Ruffians” added new honors while fighting in the Ardennes in January 1945. Their last combat jump occurred on 24 March 1945, as the 507th PIR spearheaded the highly successful Allied airborne assault across the Rhine River in Operation Varsity in which PFC George J. Peters earned the Medal of Honor. At war’s end , the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment returned to the United States, where it was inactivated in September 1845. , In memory of Raymond P. Gilbert, who served on the Board of Directors of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation from 2002 until his lamentable death in 2005. “Airborne All The Way!” Given by the Blue Ridge Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division Association.