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 Saturday, March 8, the World War 2 Guys were participants in the 147th Annual Omaha St. Patrick's Day Parade. The parade is organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and has been an Omaha tradition for generations. This year, to honor the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, our group once again raised the colors as the Marines of Easy Company, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division. We had Rhys as Cpl. Harlon Block, Deqlan as Cpl. Harold "Pie" Keller, Donnie as Pfc. Franklin Sousley, Don as Sgt. Mike Strank, Will as Pfc. Harold Henry Schultz, Bryson as Cpl. Ira Hayes, and Eric as Lt. Harold George Schrier. This year we were positioned at the front of the parade right behind the official U.S. Marine Corps color guard. The crowd support was excellent as always and the full sun, light winds, and temps in the 40s made for a beautiful morning! Afterwards we journeyed back to our favorite post-parade lunch spot at Brazen Head Irish Pub for a Guiness and some great Irish fare.

On Saturday, February 22, the World War 2 Guys were back in action for our 2025 Winter Tactical. The boys from H Company 507th Parachute Infantry tussled with some battle-hardened Germans from the 272nd Volksgenadier Division. The early morning was especially cold so knit caps, gloves, and plenty of layers were essential items. We set out with three planned scenarios with each side being in both offensive and defensive situations. After our second scenario the entire group ate some hot rations together thanks to Sergeant Green and his foxhole cooking. Spirits were high throughout the day and we really enjoyed getting a chance to do a proper winter battle. The following day, temperatures were up into the 60s, so we definitely capitalized on the last cold, snowy day.

On Saturday, February 1, the World War 2 Guys visited the Durham Museum for a group meeting and a chance to dress up in some "classy" Class A uniforms. In attendance were Joe representing the 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division, Cody representing the 349th Infantry "Kraut Killers" of the 88th Division, Matt representing our own 507th PIR while stationed in Nebraska, Rhys representing the 101st Airborne Division, and Eric representing the 164th Infantry of the American Division that served on Guadalcanal. We had a fun unit meeting on one of the train cars nicknamed "The Cornhusker Club" and had a great conversation with one of the museum volunteers and historians named Raleigh. Unfortunately, our visit was a short one, but we will hopefully add this as a regular unit event in the years to come.

On Saturday, November 9, the World War 2 Guys were back in the field for a squad patrol through the dreaded Hurtgen Forest. Our Squad Leader for the day was Sergeant Krelle with Matt serving as Assistant Squad Leader.  Bryson was on the Browning Automatic Rifle with Deqlan as his Assistant B.A.R. gunner. Donnie, Davan, and Rhys filled out the squad as riflemen with their M1s. As we continued with our "year in the life" honoring the "Big Red One", we were portraying L Company of the 16th Infantry Regiment, a storied company of the 1st Infantry Division. The 16th Infantry was tasked with some hard fighting in the Hurtgen Forest in mid-November 1944 to take Hill 232 near the town of Hamich. We spent some of our time during the day reading aloud the experiences of the 16th in their bloody struggle against the German defenders. We dug a line of four squad foxholes along a hillside to defend against any German counterattacks that may come our way. We also marched up to the top of our trench outpost to get a better view of the terrain. It was a great fall day to be outdoors and always a pleasure to spend time together as a group.

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, October 12, the World War 2 Guys took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and held our annual photo shoot day. In attendance this year were five member representing various historical impressions. Matt was honoring Captain Charles T. Schoolfield of the 369th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group who flew on the 2nd Schweinfurt mission on October 14, 1943 when he earned a Distinguished Flying Cross. Eric was portraying a fighter pilot of the 61st Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group in the fall of 1944. This is the squadron that Major Francis "Gabby" Gabreski flew with in WWII when he became the top scoring USAAF ace in the European Theatre. Will and Rhys were both portraying infantrymen of the 16th Infantry Regiment in "The Big Red One" in 1944. And Bryson sported the uniform and equipment of a Belgian infantryman of the late 1950's and early 1960's with some pretty awesome weapons, a FN FAL, a Vigneron M2 submachine gun, and the venerable Browning Hi Power. It was a really fun afternoon and a great time among friends.

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, August 3, the World War 2 Guys attended our first ever Commemorative Air Force Open House at the Council Bluffs Airport. In attendance were Matt, Joe and Bryson doing a great job displaying some WWII U.S. Army Air Force uniform and equipment items. The Pancake Man was there too flipping pancakes for a fun breakfast experience.