Home
What's New
Search Engine
Archives
Odyssey
Photo Gallery
Unit History
Unit Honors
TAPS
Voices Of Past
F&F Association
How To Submit

Back Up Next
 

FORT BENNING GA NEWSLINE  (1)

Haring Inducted
   Following is a list of names and addresses of men inducted into the armed forces from Boyertown

Pvt Willard Samuel Haring, Band, 508th Parachute Infantry, Fort Benning, Ga.

[Pottstown Mercury (Pottstown, Pennsylvania) · Sat, Feb 27, 1943 · Page 6]  [PDF]


   Corporal Lloyd Kempf, of the 508th Parachute Infantry, Camp Benning, Ga., is spending a furlough here with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dan Kempf, of Janeway street

[The Kane Republican (Kane, Pennsylvania) · Fri, Mar 12, 1943 · Page 8]  [PDF]

  At the Fort Benning Parachute School, two Kentucky paratroops have successfully made their fifth and qualifying jumps and now can wear the coveted Wings and boots of the Army paratroop.  The new jumpers are Sgt. Gordon Perkins, son of Mr. and Mrs. Will Perkins Hindman [KY], and Pvt Kenneth Hundley, brother of Miss Ann Hundley, Carrollton [KY]

   [The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY, Thursday, November 25, 1943, Page 16]

ON GUARD Playing guard for the 508th Airborne Regimental Combat Team eleven is 37-year-old Col. Joseph S. Lawrie (foreground). The former Louisiana State University backfield star is a guard on the soldier team, which also includes Lt. Col. Thomas Mersereau, 31, former Army guard. But despite the fact the 508th had the rank, it lost by 14-6 to a Fort Benning post rival Saturday. Associated Press Wirephoto

This Team Outplayed But Not Outranked
   Fort Benning, Ga., Dec. 2 (AP) --- A football squad which couldn't outplay rivals at this infantry center could outrank 'em. The 508th Regimental Combat Team's squad finished third in the Fort Benning football league, but a full colonel and a lieutenant colonel saw action this week when the airborne team lost to first place Special Troops 14-6 before 12,000 fans at Doughboy Stadium.
   Col. Joe S. Lawrie, commanding officer of the famed 508th, played guard and Lt. Col. Thomas Mersereau, the regiment's executive officer, was a star at tackle.
   Lawrie, 37-year-old former L.S.U. back, is one of the Army's youngest bird colonels after a spectacular rise in the service since he was graduated from the Army's fifth jump school class in 1941.
   Army Star Mesereau, 31, was an outstanding outstanding guard at Army between 1940 and 1942. He coached West Point's Plebes in 1947 - and assisted Earl Blaik as a line coach with the varsity in 1948 and 1949.
   With an outstanding war record record behind him, Mersereau has been head coach of the 508th in the Benning League, which has played before a record 168,554 fans thus far this season. The six-foot, four-inch, 225-pounder has been a defensive line star all season.
   But the debut of Lawrie, who calls San Antonio, Texas, home, came as a surprise in the team's big game. The former St. Petersburg [FL], and Brookline, Mass., prep gridder, got in on four plays before a twisted left knee forced him to the sidelines.
   "At my age, I guess jumping from airplanes is easier than playing football. I went in because I wanted so hard to win that game. We all did," observed Lawrie.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) · Mon, Dec 3, 1951 · Page 32

 

Copyright and all other rights reserved by the Family and Friends of The 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment Association or by those who are otherwise cited,
For problems or questions regarding this web site, please contact
Jumpmaster.