Hi Ben, I have read several stories in the book "Battling Buzzards" as well as little vignettes in past 517th Mail Calls about Woodrow Mcquaid. I tried to find accounts on the 517th Mail Call Archives site by the search engine [Google] about Mcquaid but came up empty handed. I had decided that there never was a trooper named Mcquaid and that some author made him up to spice up some of the stories in order to sell more books. And that I didn't really read about him in some of the past Mail Calls. So to prove it I went to the 1944, 517th Christmas Roster. Sure enough there he was listed in Company G. as Pvt.Woodrow W. McQuaid. He at least did exist in the 517th and not a figment of my imagination. The story I read in the Battling Buzzards told of an incident in a bar in Italy where he was the only trooper in the place along with Italian patrons. According to the story there were at least a couple of Black Shirted Fascist sympathizers among the crowd that did not appreciate the presence of a rather inebriated U S Paratrooper and made their presence known by producing a long blade knife. To the surprise of the Black Shirts our trooper was packing a Beretta 32 acp pistol in his waist band when the confrontation occurred. As the book related, it all depended on which account of the story you heard but the facts are that at least one of the knife wielding bad boys was shot to death in the altercation. If nothing else Pvt Mcquaid taught the Italians in that bar an important lesson,"never take a knife to a gunfight". Especially if the gun is in the hands of a rather drunk paratrooper. Of course the Mayor of the town wanted Mcquaid charged with murder according to the account I read in "Battling Buzzards". This resulted in Major Zais having to keep Pvt Mcquaid on a short leash. My understanding is that Woodrow Mcquaid sorta vanished into thin air after his military days and was not heard from again. I tried to track him down with the help of the internet and was only able to find one record of a Woodrow W. Mcquaid in all of the United States. This individual was born in Hinds County Mississippi in 1912 and died in Hinds County Ms in 1981. That would have made this person 32 years old in 1944 which would have made him older than most of the officers he served under "IF" this is the same Woodrow W. Mcquaid that served in the 517th. He was an interesting character and in some ways seemed to epitomize the "Trooper Code" other than not being able to hold his liquor. Sounds as though he didn't take any guff from anyone. Does anyone out there know if our Mcquaid was from Mississippi by chance. Does anyone know what happened to him after the war? Gone but not forgotten.                                                   J.Wofford [Nephew of a Buzzard] 

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