MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE POSITION OPEN

Hello Scions! 

Are you looking for a way to get more directly involved? Would you like to talk to vets and their families?  We have a perfect position open for YOU!

Our Membership Committee is looking for someone to help with follow-up phone calls to our valued members to renew their memberships. Responsibilities are light and easy, and it’s a great way to talk to and connect with our many wonderful Scions. 

If you are interested, please contact Ed Siergiej Jr. at scionsofthe17thairborne@gmail.com. 

Thank you!

SCIONS TO EMBARK ON RECORD-GATHERING TRIPS TO NPRC IN ST. LOUIS

BY ADAM COOLONG

As many of you know, the mission of the Scions of the 17th Airborne Division is to “honor the service of all veterans of the 17th and to educate others about the history and sacrifices made by the troopers who served in this division during World War II”.

As part of our ongoing efforts to honor and educate, we often help new people learn as much as they can about the service of one of their relatives in the 17th. Secretary Ed Siergiej Jr. answers emails on an almost DAILY basis from someone who came across an old photo or maybe a discharge record, looked up the 17th Airborne online and came to us looking for help. 

Most of the time these people know absolutely nothing about their relative’s service, or about the 17th in general. Sadly the 17th didn’t get a “Band of Brothers” craze to boost interest in their achievements and sacrifices. 

When we are contacted, our answer at this point is largely the same: to wit, we explain that while we WANT to be a repository/clearing house of information about the 17th, we currently don’t possess the records necessary to follow a man’s individual footsteps of his service with the division. We can’t tell them what he did, where he was wounded or with what unit he served, etc. We explain that the only way to really get anything approaching “complete” information requires a trip to the National Personnel Resource Center (a division of the National Archives) in St. Louis, where all the division’s company-level “Morning Reports” are kept. 

These Morning Reports were filed by each company-level unit, every 24 hours, and recorded key information about where the unit was (often times using map coordinates that can be pinpointed within YARDS of their actual positions using Google Earth), what men came and left the unit due to transfer, injuries, wounds, death, being AWOL, etc. They record promotions, ranks, MOS specialties and other information that really make it possible to literally trace a man’s progress throughout the war. 

Unfortunately In 1973, there was a fire at the NPRC that destroyed 80% of the Army’s individual personnel files. If you make a request to receive your vet’s file, most likely you’ll be told it was lost in the fire. This was truly a tragedy, as those files were the most complete a record as you would have found, and so much information was lost to history. As a result, these Morning Reports (which exist there on microfilm and were unaffected by the fire) are the best way to find maximum information on a man’s service.

Due to the rules at the NPRC, you can’t get access to the Morning Reports any other way than in person (although this is hopefully changing in the future, I’m told). Currently, you either have to go to their Archival Research Room yourself, or hire a researcher to go there for you.

It is my goal, and a Scions goal, to help people without having to make them go to the NPRC themselves. I feel very strongly that we the Scions should be in a position to help these people directly, as a benefit to our very affordable membership. 

In order to accomplish that goal, we are in the middle of planning the first of several research trips to the NPRC that will hopefully allow us to get a copy of every company-level unit in the division’s Morning Reports. 

Unfortunately, this is a HUGE task. The division existed from April 15, 1943 to June 15, 1945, or around 800 days. There is a Morning Report for each of those days, for every one of the 70 or so component units that made up the 17th Airborne Division (for example, C Company, 194th Glider Infantry Regiment). That means there are roughly 56,000 individual Morning Reports we want access to. 

Ideally, we want to go to the NPRC armed with a digital scanner that will allow us to make copies of the microfilm reels, directly onto a computer hard drive. Unfortunately the NPRC doesn’t allow people to bring in their own microfilm scanners at present time, so we are investigating options, including involvement from elected officials. Our request is large and unusual, and we feel that pressure from the right people might be able to help get things done quicker than if we were the “average joe coming in off the street”.

If we do this successfully, we could probably harvest the 17th’s Morning Reports from the NPRC in three or four days. At that point we’d be able to answer many of the questions we routinely receive, and help 17th family members with their search for information. 

It was exactly this type of search that led me to the Scions in the first place, and I want nothing more than to help others with that rewarding experience. 

Are you interested in helping with this project?  If so, please contact me at adam.coolong@gmail.com.

Airborne, all the way!

761st Tank Battalion
By Joe Wilson

Mr. Frederic Dehon, a 17^th Scion BFF (best friend forever) is behind an effort to erect a historical marker to the 761^st Tank Battalion at Tillet. The hope is that the dedication will take place with the Scions in attendance during their next tour.

The following is a brief description of the battle:

Prior to linking up with the 17^th Airborne Division, my father’s unit, the 761^st Tank Battalion slugged it out at Tillet. Their mission: Choke off the vital enemy supply artery that flowed through the Marche/Bastogne highway. The 761^st spearheaded for the 87^th Infantry Division.

Tillet is a small hamlet about 9 miles east of Bastogne, surrounded by hills with clumps of evergreens on top. The enemy smartly used the trees to conceal forward observers with artillery pieces camouflaged on the reverse slopes and tanks concealed in the snow-covered hills. Their 88s had the narrow roads zeroed in.

After fighting through heavy resistance in and around St. Hubert and Remagne, the 761^st reached Tillet. Along with division artillery, they laid down a heavy base of fire and engaged in an artillery duel. Here the Germans staged a brilliant defense. Their complex defensive positions took everything the 761^st and division artillery threw at them. Fire returned immediately with devastating accuracy and caught the infantry in the open. Many doughboys seemed to vanish from the face of the earth under precision-timed high explosive air bursts.

Then from out of nowhere, enemy tanks counter-attacked. This battle became one of the rare occurrences where tanks faced off against other tanks. Sherman tanks engaged German Mark IV and Panther tanks in fierce point-blank range fighting. Platoon Sergeant Moses Dade’s turret flew approximately 50 feet in the air after taking a direct hit. Dade continued to lead his tank platoon while his tank crew fought with their remaining weapons. From another location, Sergeant Conway’s tank got trapped on a hill by a platoon of enemy tanks and fought alone holding them at bay for more than an hour. A direct hit blew off his rear hatch but he and his tank crew kept engaging the enemy until other 761^st tanks arrived.  

The Stuart light tanks were not suited for this engagement and performed supply duties as the supply trucks could not traverse the rugged winter terrain. The light tanks carried ammunition and supplies to the battle and returned carrying the dead and wounded.

On January 9^th the enemy could no longer continue its fierce resistance and withdrew. This action closed the Marche-Bastogne Highway and the 87^th Infantry Division set up roadblocks to keep it closed.

As this battle took place, the 17^th Airborne Division, without armored support and while nearly frozen, slugged it out alone in an area just north of Bastogne near the infamous “Dead Man’s Ridge.” The 87^th Infantry Division was taken off the line for much needed R & R and the 761^st Tank Battalion rushed to support the hard-hitting paratroopers of the 17^th Airborne Division.