On Saturday, June 7 the Boys of H Company were back in the field in remembrance of the 81st Anniversary of the D-Day invasion. As our event was on June 7 we crafted our scenario around a D+1 patrol to link up with other scattered 507th troopers at "Timmes Orchard". The 2nd Battalion commander Lt. Col. Charles Timmes was famous for leading an ever-growing group of paratroopers in defense of a small orchard north of St. Mere Elise. The orchard was utilized as a fall back position up through June 9 by different groups of paratroopers. So for our event, our leadership group plotted an ambitious plan to patrol up through the Loess Hills of western Iowa and make our way to a small orchard that we found while studying maps of the area. In theory it was a solid idea, but it proved to be too much for our group of heavily ladened troopers in the late morning heat. After reconsidering our plans for the weekend, our squad found a prime spot in an open valley to set up our defensive positions for the night. We dug several two man foxholes, or scrapes depending on how much digging each team wanted to do. Will made us a nice fire to cook rations and coffee on and we had a fun time trying out Hazard's new homemade D Bars. A six man sunset patrol was quite successful as they came back with a German flag, a Zeltbahn, and a few other odds and ends. D+1 came to an end with plenty of liberated French Calvados, cigarettes, captured German chocolate, and lots of laughs and stories!  The overnight proved to be rather uneventful but with pleasant temperatures so that no one froze in their foxholes. On D+2 we packed up early and made our way back home. It was a great overnight event and all of the guys left with plenty of fond memories of an "Orchard Too Far"!

On Saturday, May 24, the World War 2 Guys marched in our fifth annual Memorial Weekend Parade put on by Patriotic Productions. This was a great day for a parade with overcast skies and cooler temperatures for late May. This year our entire group wore the CC2'd M42 Jump Uniforms that the 507th PIR wore for their night drop into Normandy. The troopers of our squad also all carried extra equipment that would have been utilized during the invasion such as Assault Gas Mask Bags, Hawkins Mines, extra Grenades, and the Bazooka of course! We also recently discovered that Colonel Millett made an extra effort to get as much OD7 (darker green) web gear into the hands of his 507th paratroopers as possible before the big jump. He knew the value of having darker colored gear for camouflage purposes. So we are making an effort to sprinkle in some more OD7 items into our D-Day impressions.

On Sunday, April 27, the boys of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon of H Company 507th PIR were back in action. This was our 10th annual 507th unit training event held at historic Fort Atkinson State Historical Park. We had a great turnout from the unit and lucked out on some great training weather with comfortable temperatures and overcast skies without any rain. Our training was primarily led by Sgt. Krelle and Cpl. Williams with additional instruction provided by Tech 4 Hazard, Pfc. Green, and Pvt. Popelier. We covered the WWII School of the Soldier with and without arms, hand signals, combat formations, a unit update meeting, 507th PIR organization, a uniforms and equipment review, and finished with a squad road march. It was an excellent training event and spirits were high among the squad members. We're very excited for our upcoming D-Day event in June where we will immerse ourselves in the lore of "Times Orchard".

On Sunday, April 13, the World War 2 Guys were back in action at the SAC Aerospace Museum's annual Operation: Easter Egg Hunt. We have a great turnout from our group with 8 members, all dressed in our Normandy M42 Jump Suits. Our mission was to escort the Easter Bunny around the museum and to be available for photos with kids. The museum went through over 3,000 Easter Eggs in just under an hour which was pretty impressive! We also had the opportunity as a group to get inside the C-47 and take some fun photos standing in the door. It was a quick, fun event and a great way to be involved in the community.

On Sunday, October 27, the World War 2 Guys got to take part in our first ever "Flight of Fright" event at the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum. The fun feature of this family trick or treating experience was that volunteers like our group would get to throw candy from inside the museum's aircraft collection. So with our mission established, and bags of candy in hand, we manned our aircraft. Rhys was dressed as an Airborne trooper dropping candy from the C-47 Skytrain. Matt and Cody were assigned to the B-17 Flying Fortress. Eric and Bryson were stationed in the B-29 Super Fortress, Lucky Lady. And Jeff made it out for the day, roaming the museum hangers as an Army M.P. The only big SNAFU of the day was that there were WAY more trick or treaters than the museum was expecting!!! We ran out of our first large bags of candy within the first hour. So a resupply mission brought back additional bombloads of candy for the guys inside the planes. It was an awesome afternoon event and drew enormous crowds to the museum which was great to see. Our group's favorite aspect was just getting to spend some quality time in these legendary aircraft of World War II.

On Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1, the World War 2 Guys were back in action at Fort Atkinson's 10th Annual Timeline Weekend. This year we had Will as an early WWII infantryman with the 2nd Infantry Division, Bryson as a paratrooper of the German Luftwaffe, Rhys as a U.S. Marine, Eric as a member of the 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima, and Joe as a medical specialist early in the Vietnam War. Our good friend, Steve Cox, displayed his Vietnam War USMC weapons and equipment all weekend, and Matt joined us for a while on Sunday as a US Army Air Force aviator. We had some fabulous weather this year with sunny skies both days and high temps only into the low 80s. Eric spoke both days in the fort's Visitor Center about his research on the Iwo Jima flag raisers. There was the traditional reenactor dinner Saturday night with pulled buffalo sandwiches and other goodies. There were great crowds both days with lots of positive public interaction and conversations. It was just an all around terrific weekend and one that we truly cherish being a part of every year.

On Saturday, May 25, the World War 2 Guys were back in action for the 4th Annual Patriotic Productions Memorial Weekend Parade. The weather was glorious this year with full sunshine and perfect temps throughout the morning! In preparation for the parade this year, all of our members put forth a lot of extra effort working on our impressions and our historical authenticity. Four of our guys represented the infantrymen of the 1st Infantry Division "The Big Red One" who landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. The other four guys represented the paratroopers of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment who dropped behind enemy lines into Normandy on June 5, 1944. This was our largest ever group turnout for a parade and everyone looked top notch! Everyone in our group has an amazing passion for keeping alive the memories of our World War II generation and the incredible sacrifices that they made on our nation's behalf.

On Sunday, October 22, some of the World War 2 Guys got together for a little afternoon photo shoot at Ft. Atkinson State Historical Park. The idea for the day was to come in any uniform, from any time period, and just take some great photos and have fun. Joe came as a soldier of the famed "Berlin Brigade" from the mid-1960's sporting the impressive M-14 Rifle. Eric was portraying a Sergeant First Class from the 10th Special Forces Group at Bad Tölz, Germany in 1956. Cody was a U.S. Navy Corpsman with the 1st Marine Division on Peleliu in the fall of 1944. And both Deqlan and Jacob were portraying riflemen with the 101st Airborne Division in Normandy. It was a great day to be outdoors with lots of gorgeous fall colors on the fort grounds. As storm was rolling in on us toward the end of the day, so we headed home to beat the rain.

On Tuesday, July 4, the World War 2 Guys were back in action at our favorite Independence Day Parade in the historic Field Club Neighborhood. Our unit impression was open this year so in attendance we had Joe as a 2nd Armored Division infantryman, Jacob as a 101st Airborne paratrooper, Eric as a B-29 Superfortress pilot in the Pacific, and Will as a street sweepin' US Army soldier in his denim work fatigues. The weather was perfect for the 4th of July and we had a great time being together as always!

On Tuesday, June 6, Eric was invited to set-up a D-Day themed display at the Omaha Golden K Kiwanis Club weekly meeting. First Sergeant Dan Falcon, who is a big deal in the local Airborne community and a strong supporter of our group, invited me to be a part of his presentation. Dan has been an 82nd Airborne paratrooper since the 1970s and is a tremendous leader both with JROTC and with Airborne veterans. The morning provided another great chance to show off some of the uniforms, equipment, and weapons that the brave men of the 82nd and 101st Airborne took into battle 79 years ago in Normandy.