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Myrle Traver, F Co. biography

Michael A. Sura, H Co. biography

St. Cezaire and Les Arcs today

A Company in Life Magazine 1944

Pvt. Harry A. Hill, B Company -

Newspaper Article about Cecil Doty

Cecil Doty is living history.  The 91-year-old World War II veteran is one of the few remaining members of an elite paratrooper unit which fought against 7 to 1 odds and helped defeat Axis forces in The Battle of the Bulge. 

This past weekend Doty was able to fly again in the same model plane he jumped from as a youth.  The Boogie Baby, a C46 plane held 14 troopers reenacting many of Doty’s jumps. 

Even 66 years later, the prospect of jumping from a plane 1,200 feet off the ground brought the same rush Doty experienced in his youth.  “It gets into your system.  I still got the flutters in my stomach that I did when I was jumping,” said the veteran. 

However, Doty noted a difference between the reenactment and his experiences as a trooper.  “They were using 35-foot diameter shoots.  When we were jumping behind lines, we had 28-foot shoots.  It makes a big difference.  We hit the ground going 28 feet per second.  It was like jumping out of a 2-story building,” said Doty. 

He said while watching the jumpers drift toward earth, he wondered how long it would take them to reach the ground.  

Doty remembered the thrill of the jump, “You didn’t feel like you were falling until that last 100 feet.  Then the world really started coming up at you fast.” 

One other distinct difference was the amount of time it took the younger squadron to empty the plane.  “When I was in, we jumped 14 men in 14 seconds.  That’s how fast we could get out that door,” he said. 

Doty was a member of the armed forces from 1940 to 1948. 

He began his military career as a member of the National Guard. 

However, just before his hitch ended December 26, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed.  Doty remained in the service for seven more years.  His final 3 years, Doty spent in the reserves and working for Kansas Power and Electric. 

He was enticed to join an elite branch of the armed forces, the paratroopers. 

“Paratroopers got $50 more a month,” said Doty of his reasoning behind joining the choice jump squad. 

Along with the extra pay, Doty said a lot was expected of the 517 Parashoot Regimental Combat Team.  Early morning runs and calisthenics before breakfast shaped Doty’s day.  

The Battling Buzzard 3^rd Platoon was a select group of paratroopers.  “When the other guys were in trouble, we were put in to get them moving again,” said Doty. 

Doty logged 10 jumps during his military career.  However, one of his most memorable was his 6^th. 

During a practice jump in North Carolina, Doty was put in charge of his squadron for the first time.  “It was a windy day.  The pilot turned the jump-light on too soon.  We were jumping way too low.  My shoot got caught in a tree,” Doty’s shoot lodged in a tree parallel to the ground, leaving Doty to fall the remainder of the way.  “I broke my leg.  It was hard to make that next jump that’s for sure,” he continued. 

In May of 1944, Doty made his first combat jump.  His plane departed from Italy to fly the men behind enemy lines in southern France.  The five-hour flight left the runway at midnight. 

“We were supposed to be dropped 15 miles behind the lines.  The radar went out and our pilot dropped us 50 miles behind the lines.  It took us three days to get where we were supposed to be and set up the beach-head and get it together for the sea arrivals,” said Doty. 

Later, Doty discovered, that on his jump into southern France, the plane had been much lower than the troops believed.  “We were only 500 feet off the ground.  Your shoot takes 250 feet to fully open.  They wanted us down there in a hurry,” he said. 

Doty decided to keep a memento from his jump into France.  “I knew they would never recover those shoots, so I cut a panel out and kept it.  The funny thing was, after we landed, a little while later there were a lot of French ladies with silk blouses,” he joked. 

The Battling Buzzards were involved in five major battles.  However, The Battle of the Bulge was the worst combat Doty saw.  “Of 118 men in my company, only 18 walked out on their own,” he said.  Some soldiers were killed, but many were wounded either in battle or were suffering from frostbitten feet and hands. 

In the midst of shelling and gunfire, Doty encountered a single civilian.  “There was this old lady who was still in her house. She was yelling this was her home and she wasn’t going anywhere,” he said.

Despite the hellish conditions and vicious fighting of World War II, Doty only lost one man under his command.  “He was a new recruit.  I didn’t know him that well, but I still think about it quite a lot,” he said. 

The hardship of war has not been forgotten by Doty.  “You never forget combat,” he said. 

During his time in the field, Doty saw all the horrors of war.  “A man was hit by a mortar.  His leg was blown off.  He died before we could get the medic to him.  Ten years later, I met his sister at a reunion.   I felt I had to tell her I was with him with the priest gave him his last rites,” said Doty.  He said the man’s sister was relieved to finally know what happened to her brother and was grateful to Doty for sharing his final minutes with her.

Doty’s final jump was on V.E. day.  The Battling Buzzards were assigned to jump and liberate Nazi Concentration Camps.  However, the squadron’s rescue missions were canceled because heavy artillery would arrive into the camps before paratroopers were needed. 

Doty’s spent 100 days in southern France on what many would consider a plum mission.  “The only thing we had to do was hold onto part of the line.  The base had 10-foot thick concrete walls. Nothing was going to penetrate that.  We’d set there and exchange a few rounds. We’d even take a few days of R and R and still be considered in combat,” said Doty. 

Despite the lack of action, the Buzzards were not leaving without a final jump in the European theater.  “My commander said, “We’ve been sitting around here, let’s go take a jump.”  I thought, this is my last one, and I jumped 13^th,” he said. 

Every five years, the Battling Buzzards tour their battle route in Europe.  Taking a moment, Doty reflected on a trip to Belgium in 1995.  “These kids, they would run up to me and they would thank me.  Their parents told them what we had done, and how we saved their country and these kids wanted to thank us for it,” he said.