On Sunday, March 22, Casey, Will, Matt and Eric along with photographers Bob and Dan headed out to Camp Sill for a photo shoot honoring the 70th Anniversary of the Operation Varsity jump. The four of us did our best at recreating the uniforms of the 17th Airborne Division for this event spending weeks trying to get everything as accurate as possible. Some unique features of this uniform are the M43 uniform, the American flag patches on the right sleeve, typically the Parachutist's First Aid Pouch attached to the helmet, and a mix of both early khaki and later OD#7 field gear. Temperatures were rather warm for a March day in Nebraska, but we all enjoyed being together and spending some time in the field.
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The World War 2 Guys held our 2nd Annual overnight foxhole event on Friday, December 26 just outside Ft. Calhoun, Nebraska. In attendance were Matt, Eric, Casey, and his brother Dan. For the event we portrayed the men of Fox Company, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Our scenario was the defense of the town of Longchamps where 2/502 set up a defensive perimeter northwest of Bastogne. Matt and I were dropped by truck into the field around 1600 and quickly set about to finding a defensible position. Together we dug a two man foxhole which we later realized should have been about a foot longer and a foot deeper. We met up with Casey and Dan at about 1730 before they established their CP on a ridgeline to the east of our position. The four of us did a combined patrol in the early evening probing for the German lines without success. Then around 2000 the snow began to fall. Winds were steady around 14 mph the rest of the night with wind chills dropping into the mid-teens. It was cold and it was miserable - a perfect winter reenactment! Matt and I ran numerous patrols throughout the remainder of the night mostly to keep warm. The morning dawned around 0700 and the four of us packed up and moved to our rendezvous point to the west. This was the kind of event that really enhances your appreciation for what our guys went through at the Battle of the Bulge. It's hard to imagine living like this for weeks on end but they did it!
The World War 2 Guys hit the field on Saturday night, August 2 to recreate the Battle of Guam just south of Ft. Calhoun, Nebraska. Our band of four Marines were Casey, Will, Matt and myself. We had been doing research on the Guam campaign and the 3rd Marine Division for a few weeks prior to our event. I was pretty impressed with our overall impressions considering that it was everyone's first Marine Corps reenactment. We met up around 1900 hours and were out in the field within the hour. We circled around the perimeter of a large open field and then made our way into the jungle. Will and I selected a nice flat piece of ground surrounded by trees to set up an observation post while Matt and Casey selected another little ridgeline for a second post. Everyone worked quickly to get foxholes dug in before nightfall. However, as is pretty much standard routine, Will's stomach took priority over digging and he got a small fire going to heat up some rations. Now we are well aware that Marines on Guam probably didn't start cooking fires for fear of being shot at by the Japanese. So we made a few concessions to comfort during the course of the evening. The four of us headed back out on patrol around 2300 hours seeking out Japanese positions to the north. After a quick break we made our way back to our observation posts by 2400 hours...
And that's exactly when the night's activities took a rather unexpected turn. A severe thunderstorm with heavy lightning rapidly blew into eastern Nebraska along with the potential for flash flooding. The four of us hunkered down in our muddy foxholes and spent the next two hours experiencing a true taste of what every Marine in the Pacific endured. Torrential rains with heavy thunder and lighting pounded our little patch of woods mercilessly. It was quite honestly the most realistic two hours I have ever spent at a reenactment in my 14 years in the hobby. No squad of enemy reenactors or blank rifle fire can ever match the raw power and electricity of nature's mighty dominance over man. It was during this time that several of us realized that next to the M1 Rifle, the Camouflaged Poncho is the most valuable piece of equipment a Marine can carry. We watched as the water level in the bottom of our foxholes gradually rose. It also became near impossible to climb the hills up out of the woods we were situated in. So after two hours of heavy storms and, um, a wife's uncompromising text massages, the four of us begrudgingly marched back to our base camp and headed home. I was extremely disappointed that we were unable to finish our planned overnight event. I am even more upset that I didn't get to take as many photos of our individual uniforms as I had planned. Typically it's the photos taken the following morning that truly show how successful the reenactment was. So we will have to find another Pacific island to assault sometime next year in order to live out all of our Marine dreams. Will, Casey and I jumped (from a truck) into Normandy (Ft. Calhoun, Nebraska) to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of D-Day on the night of Saturday, June 7. We geared up for the event to portray paratroopers from F Company, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment. For our first objective, Will and I were dropped in the middle of field at 2300 hours and told to go find a concrete bunker and destroy it. The half moon and clear skies provided us with enough light to make our way through snarled woods, along grassy tree lines and over winding muddy fields. We met up with Casey a short while later with the help of our little brass crickets - an item issued to the 101st Airborne for the invasion. Remember: one click is to be answered by two clicks! The three of us finally found the German bunker and then pushed to the southeast throughout the night and finally made it to our second objective, Causeway #2, a little after 0200. We held the ground around the causeway with the deep sounds of bullfrogs and crickets lulling us into a light sleep. The combination of the cold ground and our wet clothing made the night rather uncomfortable with temperatures dipping below 55 degrees. We gathered up our gear by 0430 and then pushed on further to the south. The sun finally rose to greet us just before 0600 as we ate some rations and finished our 7 hour mission. It was a memorable event and one that I have been wanting to do for about 15 years. This was my first experience reenacting as an Airborne unit in the field and I found it to be really enjoyable. I'll have to make a few minor tweaks to my uniform and gear for future events but everyone had a great night!
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