Summary of The 508th Connection by Zig Boroughs When I arrived home after my army discharge in 1945, the challenges of adult civilian life excited me tremendously. I passionately anticipated living as a husband and father, no longer separated by the Atlantic Ocean and a dangerous war from my wife and child. I eagerly plunged into active civilian employment, impatient to establish a career of peaceful service to humanity. Although the experiences and feelings of World War II affected by attitudes and ideals, my energies were so devoted to other interests, the memories of the war years were pushed into an inactive part of my brain. For many years I thought very little about the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and I lost contact with all but one of my paratrooper buddies. Then at 11:00 PM, Christmas Eve 1983, a memory of Christmas Eve 1944 forced its way to the surface. My wife and I were visiting with our daughter, Gini, and her family. We were waiting for our grandchildren to go to bed so that Santa Claus could prepare for Christmas morning. Noticing that it was 11:00 PM, I announced, Let me tell you what I was doing at this hour thirty-nine years ago! I told the story Burial and Birth, which you may read in this volume. When I finished the story, Gini told me, Dad, you should write this story and send it to all our family members. Once I wrote one story, the dam burst and a floodgate of stories awoke in my memory, which resulted in the book, A Privates Eye View of World War II. Many details had faded with time, and I needed to check with my paratrooper buddies to get my stories straight. Senator Strom Thurmans staff helped me locate Jim Allardyce, secretary of the 508th Parachute Infantry Association. Allardyce provided a roster of the association membership with their addresses. This enabled me to verify or correct my stories, A Privates Eye View of World War II. Other veterans of the 508th began to tell me their stories. Some suggested that I write another book and tell their experiences, which resulted in The Devils Tale. For over twenty years, I have collected information from others. The most important source of information has come from the 508th veterans. Since I have been associated with the 508th Parachute Infantry Association, I have met hundreds of fellow veterans of the regiment and have listened to their stories. Through the association, I have also met friends of the 508th from England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Israel. These friends have also given me valuable information. I have chosen the title The 508th Connection to give credit to all those who have so generously helped as friends and as sources of information. The connections are much more than sources for writing a book. They are friends whom I treasure. They are closer than friends. We are family. The 508th Connection tells the stories of the lives of men of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Eighty-second Airborne Division. As you read the stories in The 508th Connection, you will become connected with their livesin the barracks, in the pubs, and on the battlefield. The stories are both entertaining and educational. They will capture your heart, your imagination, and your understanding of what it was like for the paratroopers to live through the horrors of war while keeping their sanity and humor. There are humorous stories, romantic stories, and battle stories, stories about being captured by the enemy. There are stories of men who killed to survive, who lived in foxholes, who helped and were helped by local people. Throughout the book, we connect with the paratroopers who relied on each other for survival. This is their story.

The D-Day landings of June 6, 1944, were the largest amphibious military operation ever mounted. During the late spring and early summer of 1944 the roads and ports of southern England were thronged with the troops, vehicles, and ships of the invasion force. The greatest armada the world had ever seen had been assembled to transport U.S. 1st Army and British 2nd Army across the narrow strip of the Channel and open the long-awaited second front against Hitler's Third Reich. This book reveals the events of this single day on Utah beach, one of the two U.S. landings. The western flank of the D-Day beachhead was to be secured by the combined methods of a landing on by U.S. 4th Inf. Div. on Omaha Beach at the neck of the Contentin peninsula and the seizure of key locations by the air assault of the 82nd Airborne Division The All Americans and the 101st Airborne Division The Screaming Eagles. In the confusion of the air assault many of the paratroopers overshot their landing zones or were simply dropped in the wrong place. Some landed miles from their targets and others landed amongst a hornet's nest of German troops. Gradually small groups of men assembled and with those weapons available made for their objectives. At St. Mere Eglise, Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne fought house to house against the German 919th Infantry Regiment. At 6: 30 a.m., exactly on schedule men of the 4th U.S. Infantry division waded ashore at Omaha Beach. Only it was not Omaha Beach, confused by the smoke the coxswains of the landing craft had hit the beaches 2,000 yards south of Omaha Beach. Their commander, Brigadier-General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., made the instant decision to designate this spot as the landingarea. The rest of the assault troops were landed supported by DD Swimming Tanks. By the afternoon of June 6 more than 21,000 men were ashore at Utah. Before nightfall they had linked up with the Airborne forces and the beachhead was five miles deep and controlled the main arterial road from Carentan to St Mere Eglise. The 4th Infantry Divisions casualties were 197 men. The Landings at Utah, starting from the wrong place, had been a success.

My military career ended with honor at the time President Lyndon B. Johnson was the Commander in Chief of these United States. I served in the United States Coast Guard, the United States Navy, and the United States Army in combat during the World War II, Korea, and Viet Nam. When my military career ended, I entered a job market in which civil rights had become a reality. Therefore, with my education, electronic training, and motivation, I was able to secure a job working for the Minolta Corporation. My military service and my employment at Minolta enabled me to support my family: three boys and one girl who are all adults now. In looking back over my life, my memories of a strong religious upbringing brought me back to the church. As a result, I found myself being called into the ministry. Following God's directions, I found myself moving from Browns Mills, New Jersey to Columbia, South Carolina. Presently, I serve as founder and president of Worthy is the Lamb Outreach Ministries (Revelation 5:12). Therefore, proceeds from the book will be used in funding programs for the elderly, the sick, and the needy through my ministry. To God Be the glory!

Sept. issue 1975- contains directory of members.