Recent website additions:
biography of Erwin W. Scott, Jr.
Photo of C Company 1st Platoon, Squad 2
Photos of Gene Markle and the 596th PCEC
200+ photos of Joe Broudy and A Company
John Copsey, Fritz Crytzer, I Company

 Lucky Hiers

Ben, I thought you just might want me to pass on to you.  As the Email indicates ... we're still packing off to leave for Florida.  I'm still hoping that I will have time to write my bio regarding my experiences with the 460th before we leave. 

Jesse: 

 

It truly was a serendipity experience to hear from another paratrooper comrade -- particularly from the 460th.  When I received the PCRT list I was dismayed to find only a few men listed from the 460th.  I feel like a complete "dork" because until recently I never knew that the 517th has been having reunions.

 

During the time of the  Oregon reunion I found out that the 517th was having a reunion there.  Needless to say -- it was too late for me to go.  I was down in Denver while the reunion in Oregon was going on and  I stopped into Costco to pick up a membership card.  By chance the gentleman behind the counter (Mike Marsh) handled our application and in the conversation he asked if I had been in service.  I was very proud to say "Yes" and that I was a paratrooper in the 517th.  I told him how disappointed I was that the 517th never had any reunions.  He then informed me that the Oregon reunion was in process right at that very moment.  Mike also told me that he knew all about the 517th because he had the book "Battling Buzzards" by Gerald Astor.  He even promised to send me a copy, which he did promptly.  I wanted to pay him for it, but he would have none of that!  Mike also promised that he was going to send me another one for my stepson, Major David Foster.  David is presently stationed in Atlanta and is the apple of my eye. He also has earned his paratroop wings, although he isn't with a paratroop outfit at this time.  Most of what he is doing he can't even tell me.

 

Getting back to Mike Marsh he also got me hooked up with the Rocky Mtn. Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division.  My wife and I attended our first dinner with them a couple of weeks ago and it was great to meet so many so many other paratroopers.   

 

Just by coincidence the same week that Mike Marsh and I got hooked together, my stepson, Major David Foster, was surfing the internet looking to find a connection for me with some of  the group I might have served with.  He located MSG Don R. Gentry, U.S. Army Security, Retired,  and Ben Barrett, Sr. who is doing a fantastic job with Mail Call.

He and Bob Reber are both working to update the Roster at least once a month. 

 

Surely you can tell that I am very excited to be hooked up with this fine group of men.  Nothing short of death will keep me from the National reunion in D.C. next June.  We have already made our reservations.  At this point in time it is  doubtful about our getting to attend the mini-reunion in Kissimmee.  I live in Florida part of the year (Redington Shores, FL, which is thirty miles west of Tampa).  The remainder of the year we live at Lake Dillon, CO which is located 76 miles due west of Denver, just barely west of the Continental Divide.  Since the wife and I are alpine skiers we have spent over forty years of our winters in Colorado.  Ordinarily any other time of the year we would be able to make that reunion, but we have people who rent our FL condo during the winter months while we're out here skiing.

We would really like to be at the FL reunion and if you know of any other Florida reunions in the future please let us know so we can arrange to be there if at all possible.

 

On a sadder note I was informed that Col. Cato, our Battalion Commander, passed away a year ago August.  On an even sadder note I found out that he lived many years less than five miles from my condo.  It seemed a tragedy to me since I had so much respect for him and would have liked very much to have sat down with him for some conversation.  Col. Cato, if my memory is correct, he was 91 y/o when he died.  I understand his wife died two weeks later.

 

My wife and I are working hard to get the Colorado home closed off so we can make a quick trip back to FL to get the condo ready for our winter renters.  My intention is to very shortly write my biography as requested by several.  It will mainly be as it concerns the 460th as the book "Battling Buzzards" was primarily written about the Infantry.

 

Thanks so much for contacting me.

GERONIMO 

L. H. "Lucky" Hiers, Sr.

---

Hi Tom,

Thought this might be of interest to you...I'll bet you made more than a
few trips in these! My old flight instructor (the one who taught me
instrument flying) is one of the pilots flying this bird back! (See links
below)

Take care...all our love to you and Bette.

Jim

http://www.hagerstownaviationmuseum.org/home.html

Last Flyable C-82 In The World Returning Home to Hagerstown, Arrival
Expected Sunday

(Hagerstown, MD) -- The last flyable Fairchild C-82 "Flying Boxcar" took
off today, October 12, from Greybull, Wyoming at 12:10pm MDT bound for
Hagerstown, Maryland where it was manufactured over sixty years ago. This
airplane, saved from being cut up as scrap and purchased by the Hagerstown
Aviation Museum at auction in Wyoming on August 23, 2006, has since been
undergoing preparation for flight. The effort to return the famous C-82 to
its hometown has made national news.


On Sunday the C-82 will depart Culpepper for the last leg of the journey.
The famous C-82 Packet "Flying Boxcar" should be arriving in Hagerstown at
Hagerstown-based Fairchild Corporation built the C-82, the first
successful military transport specifically designed to accommodate the
post-World War II concept of an all-air Army. The Fairchild C-82 series
pioneered the large-scale aerial delivery of military equipment and
supplies, and could carry 18,000 pounds of cargo or 42 combat troops. The
prototype first flew on 10 September 1944 with deliveries beginning in
1945. Too late to serve in WWII, several were used in the Berlin Airlift to
carry assembled vehicles into the city. The C-82 Packet was nicknamed the
"Flying Boxcar" and was retired from the USAF inventory in 1954. Over 200
were built, and many went on to fly for airline companies, including for
TWA. The Air Force went on to use a similar, and more powerful
Fairchild-built cargo plane, the C-119. The 1965 movie "Flight of the
Phoenix" starring Jimmy Stewart, utilized a C-82 aircraft. The 2005 re-make
starring Dennis Quaid used a Hagerstown-based Fairchild Corporation C-119,
the successor to the C-82, and officially named the "Flying Boxcar."

Dick Seitz with our Belgian friend Eddy Monfort - Summer 2005