541st Parachute Infantry Regiment (United States) - Strategic Reserve, USA

Strategic Reserve, USA

After the end of the Knollwood Maneuvers, training continued for the 541st. A new group of men came into the outfit, to replace those lost to units overseas, and the Regiment began a 13 week Airborne Infantry Training Cycle. One of these men was Billy Tom Lusk, a young draftee, later a Sergeant of a Machine Gun Squad, who had taken Infantry Basic Training, volunteered for the Army Air Corps, been recalled to the Infantry and volunteered for the Paratroopers to get out of the 71st Infantry Division and get overseas and into the action. He remembers spending most of 1944 doing problems in the field, Jumping onto the DZ on Monday and staying until Friday of Saturday. He was not happy with the assignment, remembering that the unit never went to the field without sustaining a few casualties from friendly fire, as well as the inherent jump injuries. Lusk became disenchanted with the unit and when it became obvious that they weren't getting overseas he volunteered for OCS. The war ended before he graduated, so he dropped out and discharged, having never gotten overseas as he wished.

The Regiment moved back and forward between Fort Benning and Camp Mackall, demonstrating Airborne Tactics for dignitaries, developing new tactics and technique, and providing cadre for new Airborne Units being raised, like the 13th Airborne Division.

Then in July 1945 the Regiment was alerted for movement to the Pacific Theatre of Operations, pending an assignment to the 11th Airborne Division.