Dear Ben:  Note to Les Hughes re the 551st.

Although there is better authority ,ie. for example, Dick Seitz, Bill Boyle and Tom Cross, I could not let the recent 551st comments go without responding.

I recently read that Henry Kissinger once said that just because you are paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't after you.  All of us are a little paranoid and that may be why we are still alive.  However, the recent rumblings from the 551st are too much.

The charge roughly stated is that Rupert Graves had a bad time commanding the 551st and as revenge saw to it that the 551st did not get credit for what it did and possibly that they got suicidal missions that destroyed them.  Anyone who knew Rupert Graves knows that such a charge is ridiculous.  Rupert Graves was a man of sterling character.  He was slow to anger, if he ever got angry.  He was a man who was eminently fair, an inborn trait always with him, but whetted by his many years of service. 

We were all in the army and did what we were told.  If the 551st thought they were fully trained and ready for combat, but held at Mackall for more training, it may have been that they were not needed just then, or with low morale and high VD and AWOL rates, it may have meant that someone in higher headquarters concluded that they were not as ready as they thought they were.  We had a sergeant in G Co. who had trained for years and was dying to get into combat, but when he got there in Southern France went stark, raving mad and was sent to the hospital never to be seen again. 

There is no doubt that the 551st did not receive the credit it deserved.  None of the smaller parachute outfits did.  This includes the 517th, the 509th and others.  The 509th also was almost obliterated in the Bulge; Rupe Graves had nothing to do with that.  We were commanded by general officers who believed that paratroops should be fought as units no smaller than divisions;  this included Mat Ridgeway, Maxwell Taylor and Jim Gavin.  Yet in the Bulge, they fought us not as a regimental combat team, but as battalions.  If a battalion ever got a commendation it usually came from the grateful commander whom we had assisted in completing a tough mission, such as J. Lawton Collins (Lightning Joe).  Ridgeway only endorsed the commendations.

Mel Zais, the 517th executive officer and Graves right hand man, also had been in the 551st.  Even if Graves had been the villain as some would paint him, Mel would not have let him get away with downplaying or destroying those 551st men he loved.  Mel was invited to be the principal speaker at one of the 551st reunion banquets.  I have a copy of his address which is replete with respect and admiration for his fellow troopers of the 551st and their great loss of their commander, Woody Jeorg.  Incidentally, the book Operation Dragoon gives full credit to the 551st in the invasion of Southern France.  Another interesting incident brought out by that book is that the original invasion order received by General Frederick had us landing as small units all over Southern France, rather than in mass.  Frederick dispatched the commander of the 509th or the 551st to get the order satisfactorily revised so we were to concentrate on the la Motte--Le Muy.  We, who were scattered all over hell and high water, could conclude that the troop carriers never got the word.

We in the 517th had our agony resulting from orders including the one at Bergstein where our outfit was all but wiped out.  Rather than concluding that someone was trying to wipe us out, Graves and the rest of us have concluded that it was a diversionary attack.

In these instances, I recommend a little more charity, a little less paranoia, and a lot more praise for the troopers of all outfits who accomplished much under harsh circumstances.

Howard Hensleigh