Revised Second Edition. The roots of Tactical Airlift and Air Mobility Command Missions were founded in the Troop Carrier Groups of World War II. Meticulously researched and documented, Col Mark Vlahos' "Men Will Come" A History of the 314th Troop Carrier Group 1942 - 1945, will not only be the definitive history of this unit, but fills a major void in USAAF History. Activated March 9, 1942, the 314th participated in every major Airborne Operation in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operations. Through the school of hard knocks, tough lessons were learned as the new Airborne, Air-land, and Glider missions matured in WWII. The 314th played a major role in this evolving process. As we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, this book is a must read for anyone interested in WWII Airborne, Troop Carrier Operations and the contribution of our Greatest Generation. -Gen Carlton Everhart II, USAF-Ret, former Commander Air Mobility Command. 327 photos, maps, documents; index. NOTE: This revised second edition includes a small number of typographical corrections but most importantly a number of additions in Appendix 9, specifically a number of aircraft were inadvertently missing from "Operation NEPTUNE #1 Mission Flight Crew Listing, June 5 - 6, 1944" and "Operation NEPTUNE #2 Mission Flight Crew Listing, June 7, 1944". A Merriam Press World War II History.

Leading the Way to Victory is the official history of the 60th Troop Carrier Group, featuring unpublished first-person accounts by participating veterans and expertly written by retired USAF Colonel Mark C. Vlahos, combat veteran and former Vice Wing Commander of 314th Airlift Wing at the Little Rock Air Force Base. The December 7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War II. Just six months later in May 1942, flying new C-47 transport aircraft, the 60th Troop Carrier Group led the way as the first U.S. TCG to deploy to England and the European Theater of Operations in World War II. Leading the way to victory, the 60th TCG’s first mission—dropping U. S. paratroopers outside of Oran, North Africa—was not only the first combat airborne mission in U.S. Army history, but also the longest airborne mission of the entire war. This drop spearheaded Operation TORCH, also known as the Invasion of North Africa, by taking key Axis airfields just inland from the amphibious landing zones. The 60th TCG went on to fly some of the first combat aeromedical evacuation missions and the first combat mission towing CG-4A “Waco” gliders during Operation HUSKY—the Invasion of Sicily. As the new airborne, air land, aeromedical evacuation, and glider missions matured in World War II, the 60th TCG continued to play a major role, paying in blood for valuable lessons learned in the school of hard knocks. The group later flew dramatic missions into Yugoslavia, supporting Partisans as part of the secret war in the Balkans, an episode of World War II history still all but unknown today and dropped British paratroops in the airborne invasion of Greece. The Group was inactivated at the end of the war. Drawing on official United States Army Air Forces microfilm records, operational records in the National Archives, photographs from both collections, published historical materials, and many personal accounts, author Mark C. Vlahos’ expertly written and highly readable volume is certain to become the standard history and go-to reference for the 60th TCG. This work offers scholars and lay readers alike an authoritative, informative, and engaging saga of the Group’s battles, adversity, hardships, and triumphs from inception through the Allied victory in Europe.

The daughter of a D-Day paratrooper and her husband, a PTSD therapist, discover a family legacy of love, trauma, and resilience when they set out to explore a vast trove of WWII correspondence, official military documents, personal effects, and unique militaria found in closets and basements after her father’s death. Young Sue Gurwell had always known that her father had been a paratrooper. An old camo parachute from Holland served as her backyard tent, and high on a shelf she mustn’t touch, eight red devils in parachutes grinned from the front of mysterious drinking glasses Dad had sent Mom during the war. And then there was the special poem in his roll-top desk she sometimes snuck a peek at, written by a member of Dad’s regiment. This poem was a premonition of the sergeant’s death. “Yes,” her dad told her, “He was right—he died on D-Day.” But it’s not until 2016, after her parents had both passed away, that Susan Gurwell Talley and her husband Jack L. Talley begin to understand the true extent and significance of the wartime artifacts that had been staples of Sue’s childhood. The Talley’s discovered that Sue’s father, Lt. George L. Gurwell, Executive Officer, HqHq, 508th PIR, had silently squirreled away thousands of wartime documents in the family home. Like most combat veterans, George was never one to talk about the war; but the historic collection of official records, correspondence, photographs, maps, memorabilia, cultural artifacts, and unique ephemera constitute quite possibly the most extensive, various, and complete documentation of the 508th held privately today. This precious resource could not have passed into better hands than those of Jack and Sue Talley. Jack, a PhD psychologist specializing in PTSD, was the first to understand that George had PTSD symptoms that still lingered from the war years when he and George were introduced on June 6, 2001. That evening, the 57th anniversary of D-Day, George first opened up about the war, and preceded to talk late into the night. In that conversation lies the genesis of this book.

Includes names from the States of Alabama, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

The history of the use of airlift and tanker forces in the U.S. military from the early biplane to today's advanced aircraft is brilliantly described in this book.