517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team - Activation and Training

Activation and Training

The 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team was formed from units of the 17th Airborne Division, which was activated on 15 March 1943. The Division's parachute units were the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the 460th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion and Company C, 139th Airborne Engineer Battalion. The 517th was at Camp Toccoa, Georgia; the 460th and C/139 were at Camp Mackall, North Carolina.

Paratrooper units were chosen from volunteers, who were screened and trained at Camp Toccoa. The 517th was charged with screening the volunteers and assigning those qualified to either infantry, artillery or engineers. Officers of the 460th and C/139 were placed on temporary duty at Toccoa to help with the screening, and men assigned to those units were sent to Mackall.

On activation, the regiment had a total strength of nine officers, headed by newly appointed, 32-year-old, commanding officer Lt. Col. Louis A. Walsh, Jr. Walsh had been with the Airborne since its earliest days and had spent three months as an observer with U.S. forces in the Southwest Pacific. Colonel Walsh was known for setting extremely high standards, including physical conditioning. In addition, each trooper was required to qualify as "expert" with his individual weapon, "sharpshooter" with another and "marksman" with all crew-served weapons in his platoon.

As units filled up, they were to be given basic training at their home stations and then sent for parachute qualification to Fort Benning, Georgia. After jump training, all units, including the 517th would join the 17th Airborne at Camp Mackall.

The battalions were filled in numerical sequence. The 1st Battalion, under Major William J. Boyle, was filled in April 1943, and the 2nd Battalion, under Major Richard J. Seitz, was nearly filled in May. By late June or early July, while Major Melvin Zais' 3rd Battalion was still waiting for its first recruit, the flow of volunteers to Toccoa was suddenly turned off. The 3rd Battalion would be completed with Parachute School graduates who had already completed basic.

The regiment was moved to Fort Benning for parachute training. The 517th completed jump school with no washouts, setting a record that has endured to this day. The 517th troopers were the first paratroopers to wear the steel helmet in jump training; until then a modified football helmet had been used. On completion of jump training the 1st and 2nd Battalions moved on to Mackall while the 3rd remained at Benning to complete fill-up.

In February, the regiment moved to Tennessee to take part in maneuvers being conducted by Headquarters Second Army. In March, it was announced that the parachute elements of the 17th Airborne Division—the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the 460th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, and Company C of the 139th Airborne Engineer Battalion, which was redesignated the 596th Airborne (Parachute) Engineer Company—were being pulled out for overseas shipment as the 517th Regimental Combat Team. The 517th RCT was expected to operate as a small division.

On return to Camp Mackall, while preparing for overseas movement, Colonel Walsh was replaced as commanding officer by Lt. Col. Rupert D. Graves, United States Military Academy '24, who came from command of the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion.

In early May, the RCT components staged through Camp Patrick Henry near Newport News, Virginia. On 17 May, the 517th boarded the former Grace liner Santa Rosa, while the 460th and 596th loaded onto the Panama Canal ship Cristobal.