The 508th Airborne Infantry Regiments, currently stationed at Fort Benning, will take part in the Army's mountain training maneuver "Exercise Pine Ridge," Lt. Gen, Edward H. Brooks, Second Army Commander, and maneuver director, has announced.
   Exercise Pine Ridge, to be held near Elkins, W. Va., in August and September, will be the Red Devils' third maneuver in less than a year.
   The 5087th has just "defeated" an aggressor force in Operation Long Horn, Held in Texas during March and April.  Last December the Red Devils played the role of aggressors in opposition to the 47th Viking Division in the Camp Rucker exercise.
Unit Designated
   General Mark W. Clark, chief of Army Field Forces, has already designated the 47th Infantry Division as one of the units to take part in Exercise Pine Ridge.  The operation, aimed at training men for cross-country night and day fighting in rough, mountainous terrain, will involve approximately 22,500 troops.
   Exercise Pine Ridge will open with a two-week indoctrination training period for selected individuals of participating units.  A four-week training period, utilizing the skills developed in the indoctrination period, will follow.
  The exercise will conclude with a series of regimental combat team training exercises stressing offensive and defensive operations. Training in logistical support, including supply by Army helicopter, aircraft and cableways and evacuation by the same means, will also be emphasized.
Lawrie in Command
   Thirty-eight-year-old Col. Joe S. Lawrie, former Louisiana State University football star, is in command of the 508th.  A World War II commander of a parachute infantry battalion, Colonel Lawrie has commanded the 508th since last September.
   Colonel Lawrie wears the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Air Medal, Combat /infantry badge3, and several other decorations for his fighting in the Pacific Theater during World War Ii.
   The 508th will celebrate on May 5 its first year of reactivation.  The regiment was deactivated Nov. 25, 1946 at Camp Kilmer N. J. after fighting in the European Theatre in World War II.  The unit parachuted into Normandy on D-Day June 6, 1944.

[Columbus Daily Enquirer, 25 Apr 1952, Page 12]

   Col. George O. Pearson of Sheridan, Wyo. has assumed command of the 508th Regi8ment5al Combat Team at Fort Benning.
   He succeeds Col. Joe S. Lawrie of St. Petersburg, Fla. and San Antonio, Tex. former LSU football star, who is scheduled to attend the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pa.
   An airborne combat veterans o World War II, Colonel Pearson received his commission upon graduation from the University of Minnesota in 1928.  ge entered active service in 1940, and was with the 11th airborne division ijn New Guine3a, Okinawa an the Philippines from 1944 to 1945.
   He was also area engineer in Manila from 1946-1947, and served as 187th Airborne infantry regiment commander in Japan until 19458.
   Colonel Pearson is a graduate of the Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kans., and the General staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kans. and the Armed Forces Industrial college at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.
   Before entering the Army Colonel Pearson was associated with the N. A. Pearson Construction Company of Sheridan.  He hold the Legion of Merit, Silver Star and Bronze Star with an Oak leaf Cluster.  Prior to coming to Fort Benning, he was on duty with the Army's assistant chief of staff, G-3, in Washington.
   Colonel and Mrs. Pearson live at Fort Benning.  They have two daughters Sally Ann, 18 and Mary A. Pearson, 16.  He is the son of Mrs. N. A. Pearson of Markley Ranch, Laramie, Wyo.

[Columbus Daily Enquirer, 25 July 1952, Page 14]