Captain William H. Nation

Bill Nation was drafted into the U.S. army in January 1941. He volunteered for and was accepted into training to become a paratrooper. He was a member of the 501^st P.I.R. and became a qualified parachutist on 14^th August 1942. Bill was in the original cadre of officers that formed the 508^th P.I.R.

In the autumn of 1942, he served in the Personnel Section of Service Company. During that time he was promoted to the rank of Captain on 22^nd June, 1943. He served as Regimental Adjutant (S-1) for the remainder of his service in the 508^th.

 He parachuted onto the soil of Normandy at 2.14 a.m., 6^th June 1944. Captain Nation was part of the stick which included Colonel Roy Lindquist, the Regimental Commander of the 508^th. He came down in the swampy floodplain of the Merderet River east of Amfreville.

On 17^th September 1944, he jumped with the 508^th into Holland as part of Operation Market-Garden.

On 17^th December 1944, Captain Nation and the 508^th were sent to Belgium to stop the German Counter attack, which was to become the Battle of the Bulge.

Captain William H. Nation was killed in action aged 26, in the early morning hours of 13^th January 1945, while setting up a forward command post at Lanzerath-Losheim area in Belgium.