Triple Nickels see combat

The Army, seeing how well the Tuskegee airmen are doing, decides to send the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion to the Pacific assigned the the 11th Airborne Division. The battalion arrives in late December 44 while the Division is fighting on Leyte
 
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My father was in the 555th medium bomber squadron. When I saw the title I thought "wait a minute", they were flying missions to France in 43.

In the case of the para battalion we'd have material for some magazine articles and books, & then a Hollywood movie.
 

Japhy

Banned
They'd provide the 11th with some much needed publicity in a world that pretends there were only two US Airborne Divisions. Probably doesn't save the 11th Test from becoming the 1st Air Cav in the 1960s, but every little bit helps. An extra battalion at Corrigador will help reduce casualties just buy providing a force just slightly larger than the garrison, beyond that, they're a drop in the bucket, if one that would earn it's honors.

Being as the 555 lay a lot of tbe groundwork for smoke jumping as an institution with the CPS jumpers, a bigger long term impact would be how that method of fighting forest fires would develop without them. There's the unfortunate potential for more Mann Gulch style disasters without their military kit being on the scene at some early potentials.
 
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