The weekend of September 5-6, members of the World War 2 Guys attended our 12th annual Timeline Weekend at Fort Atkinson State Historical Park. Eric has attended this event every September since its inception in 2015. This year we had Donnie with the 1st Nebraska Volunteer Infantry in the Philippine Insurrection, Davan as a member of the 82nd Airborne in Panama, Dom as an Iraq War Infantryman, Eric as an A-4 Skyhawk pilot with Attack Squadron 164 aboard the USS Oriskany, Joe as a Medical Sergeant with the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam, and Rhys as an U.S. Army Infantryman in Berlin in 1961. Fellow reenactors who we also worked closely with were Steve Cox representing the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II and Andrew Gaghagen who portrayed a Spanish American War soldier. Saturday was terribly hot and humid which made the afternoon hours difficult to get through, but we made it. The reenactor supper was a great time as always, followed by some really fun sunset time among friends. Sunday was more overcast with a fast moving front that blew in just after the 10am flag raising ceremony.  But the skies calmed down and we had a nice afternoon. This remains one of the best events of the calendar year and we're already tossing around ideas for 2027!

On Saturday, August 1 the World War 2 Guys attended our third annual Open House event at the Commemorative Air Force's Great Plains Wing hanger and museum. Rather unexpectedly, the typical hot and humid late summer weather took a turn as we were gifted with light breezes and temps in the 60s. It was an incredible morning to be outdoors! Once again our group happily devoured stacks of golden pancakes with sausages, orange juice and coffee served up by the famous Pancake Man. We had two display tables set-up featuring U.S. Navy items from the USS Oriskany and a table of typical USAAF uniforms and equipment. In one month we'll be back in action at the annual Ft. Atkinson Timeline Weekend so come on out and see all of our amazing impressions!

On Saturday, July 4, the World War 2 Guys helped to celebrate America's 250th birthday at the Annual Field Club Neighborhood 4th of July Parade. To honor America, we proudly marched as paratroopers of H Company 507th PIR wearing the red, white and blue patch of the "All-American" 82nd Airborne Division. We wore the khaki summer service uniform with neck ties, paired with M1936 Pistol Belts and polished Jump Boots. We looked dang sharp!!! The weather was unfortunately rather bleak with gray skies and rain throughout the morning. But the troopers of H Co. put on a great show marching in formation throughout the parade. 

The weekend of May 2-3 saw the World War 2 Guys participate in our first ever "Spring" Timeline Weekend. Working with Superintendent Jason Grof as our coordinator, we were able to do a slightly smaller scale version of our big September Timeline which is a favorite unit event. For this event we had Donnie representing the 507th PIR during its training period in Alliance, Nebraska. Dom was representing the 507th PIR in Normandy wearing the iconic M42 Jump Suit. Eric was representing the U.S. Marine Corps in Korea at the 1951 Battle of the Punchbowl. Rhys was representing the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam. Once again Joe brought out his excellent 5th Special Force Group impression for Vietnam. And to round out our group, Davan was representing the 82nd Airborne in the early 2000's. The weather was fantastic the entire weekend with sunny skies and light breezes. We took part in the 3:00 afternoon whiskey ration on Saturday and were invited to the reenactors' supper in the early evening. We gathered around the big tent at sunset to talk about all things history and the day's events. Sunday saw fewer visitors to the fort but our group still had a fun time hanging out and talking history. We're already excited to get back to the fort in September for the much larger Fall Timeline!

On Sunday, October 26, the World War 2 Guys helped out at the 2nd Annual "Flight of Fright" event at the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum. In attendance we had Eric, Matt and Joe stationed at the B-29 Superfortress representing a Pacific Theater B-29 crew. Over at the C-47 Skytrain we had Donnie, Davan and Rhys representing the Jumping Spiders of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment. We had lots of trick or treaters throughout the afternoon event and quite a few history-related conversations with visitors. We always have a great experience at the museum which holds a very special place in our hearts. At a D-Day display event at the museum in June of 2018, Deqlan, Donnie and Davan visited our display as kids and now 7 years later, they are the ones wearing the same uniforms to honor our World War II veterans. It's a great story and I'm glad we are passing along our love and appreciation of our nation's military history to a new generation!

On Friday, October 3, the World War 2 Guys were back in action at Omaha's Baxter Arena for Military Appreciation Night at the UNO vs. Air Force hockey game. We set up a pretty easy table display featuring items from the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Army Air Force in World War II. Davan was representing the 82nd Airborne Division, Deqlan the 1st Infantry Division, Bryson the 35th Infantry Division, Donnie the 5th Marine Division, Will the 8th Air Force, and Eric the 20th Air Force. It was a nice quick display event and we got to talk with a lot of families and kids interested in WWII. Afterwards our whole group went to Brazen Head for a nice group dinner to unwind. It sounds like this will be an annual event going forward, so hopefully we'll be back next year for more.

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.