Christmas Special: 1/40 "Denali" Artic Angels + 511th PIR History

In this episode, 11th Airborne Division historian Jeremy C. Holm shares a special Christmas message that he prepared for the Arctic Angels of the 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment based out of JBER in Anchorage, Alaska. 

The 1/40 has a long, distinguished history of service to our nation, and Jeremy was honored to share this speech with them to help celebrate the holidays, along with an exciting announcement that you'll have to listen to find out! 

For more 11th Airborne Division history, subscribe to this podcast or visit www.511pir.com or www.11thAirborne.com today!

Down From Heaven Comes Eleven! Airborne All the Way!

For more information, visit www.511pir.com or www.11thairborne.com today, or you can email jeremy at Jeremy@jeremycholm.com.

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To purchase copies of Jeremy's books on the 11th Airborne Division, please visit:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00G3TNO0A/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=c7baae52-e150-4caf-86b1-990b2ef40772

Or to visit our full 11th Airborne Division online store, please visit:

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Down From Heaven Comes Eleven! Airborne All the Way!

Transcript

Good evening, Angels!

And your dates. 

And Merry Christmas!

I have been looking forward to joining you for dinner tonight for months… but my sweet grandmother who is almost 102 is fading fast and we are saying our last goodbyes. 

So maybe next year I can join you in person for the celebrations! 

My name is Jeremy Holm, I am a former American bobsled athlete turned 11th Airborne Division historian, and I feel privileged to share the story of the Angels around the world.

And yes, you did hear me correctly, for sixteen years I drove bobsleds at over 80 miles an hour which my wife thinks is cool, but crazy.

However, after watching a video of one of your jumps, she now thinks YOU’RE cool…but crazy.

Nowadays, instead of driving sleds I spend my time reading historical documents, and we all know how exciting Army records are.

Its death by a thousand boring paper cuts. 

It’s worth it, though, because like I said, my specialty is the history of the 11th Airborne Division with a focus on the 511th Parachute Infantry. 

So, you can imagine my excitement when I heard the news about your squadron! 

The legendary 511th is back! 

Years ago, two old Paratroopers from the regiment shared a holiday phone call. 

They spoke of days gone by, of Jump School and their training, and then they talked of combat in World War II, sharing stories of friends who didn’t make it home. 

We sing of the “sticks of Angels killed on Leyte and Luzon.” 

They knew them with that special bond understood only by those who serve together.

At the end of the call, Colonel Ed Lahti said with tears in his eyes, “I wonder if anybody else remembers the price they paid.”

It was my honor to interview the 511th’s last living wartime Angels and to document the stories of the price they paid to keep us free.

One of these old veterans told me with tears in his eyes, “Does ANYONE care what about we did during the war?” 

Tonight, I’d like to BRIEFLY share some of the 511th’s story with you since the full history would require a book… or three. 

And a podcast. And two websites. And a miniseries. Spoiler alert. 

Tonight, I’m going to tell you the story of FIVE five-eleven CHRISTMASES. 

The first was Christmas of 1941 after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. 

The second was Christmas of 1942 when a handful of soldiers got off a train in Toccoa, Georgia. 

These Paratroopers belonged to the new 511th Parachute Infantry under the command of Colonel Orin “Hardrock” Haugen, one of America’s first jump qualified officers. 

Orin participated in the inaugural Prop Blast Ceremony and was considered one of the finest tacticians in the airborne. 

After personally selecting his battalion commanders, Hardrock told them to ONLY accept the best.

So, could YOU make it in the old 511th? Let’s find out. 

When soldiers arrived at Toccoa they had to stand almost naked before a panel of battalion officers who evaluated their intelligence, character and physical appearance.

Recruits then had to run Mount Currahee AND pass the Army Intelligence test with a score of 110 or higher, the same requirement for Officer Candidate School.

One trooper said, “The regiment was looking for soldiers smart enough for OCS but dumb enough to jump out of an airplane.” 

Out of 12,000 airborne volunteers, the 511th only accepted 3,000 and that number was later cut to 2,100. 

The 511th was comprised of the Army’s very best.  

In February of 1943, the 511th went up to Camp Mackall, North Carolina to join the new 11th Airborne as the Division’s tactical parachute unit.

My grandfather, Lieutenant Andrew Carrico, was one of those Angels and he fought with the Division on Leyte and Luzon before being SEVERELY wounded in 1945.

Of course, the 511th’s troopers felt THEY were the 11th Airborne’s best soldiers. 

They outran, outshot and outworked the Division’s other units. 

When the regiment went to Jump School, not one man in the 511th refused to jump and they returned to Camp Mackall with PRIDE, jump wings on their chest, and jump boots polished like glass. 

“We were tougher than a thirty-cent steak”, one Paratrooper declared and they swaggered around Mackall and nearby towns like kings. 

I’m sure THAT never happens around Anchorage.

But the 511th did look down on the Division’s non-jumpers, and before he passed, Company A’s Captain Steven Cavanaugh and I talked about Camp Mackall. 

He said, “We were felt to be mavericks and troublemakers and prone to feel superior to the rest of the Division. Which, of course, we were.” 

When mess hall cooks repeatedly gave the Paratroopers attitude, Sergeant John Muntz pulled one of the cooks over the counter and quote, “stomped his teeth out”.

Customer service improved. 

The 511th’s blend of hard work and troublemaking continued and at one point a frustrated Division Commander General Joseph Swing shook his head and proclaimed: “Damn rowdy paratroopers!” 

That should be the 511th’s unofficial motto. 

But the regiment helped General Swing save the future of the airborne. After Sicily, the War Department was contemplating the removal of airborne DIVISIONS and instead only forming brigades or RCTs UNTIL the 11th Airborne proved the validity of both airborne divisions and aerial resupply during the Knollwood Maneuvers in early December of 1943. 

85% of the 511th hit their DZs and General Swing came to deeply appreciate the caliber of men in the regiment. He later joked they were “The greatest men in the world to take to war, and the last people in the world I’d take home to date my baby sisters.” 

After Christmas celebrations of ‘43, the third Christmas in our story, the 11th Airborne headed to Louisiana where Camp Polk’s armored units learned not to mess with the 511th. 

My grandpa said that when the armored branch and the Angels met, “all hell broke loose” and armored soldiers were heard to say, “If you get in a fight with a Paratrooper, you better bring your lunch. Those guys never quit!”

After beating on armored units for four months, the 11th Airborne went to Camp Stoneman, California for three weeks and then in May of ‘44 the 511th boarded the SS Sea Pike. 

But prior to departure, a group of Angels gathered around PFC Alex Village Center who read them a letter with the Presidential seal. 

It said that Alex’ brother had been killed in action in Europe, and as the family’s only surviving son, he could return home if he wanted.

Private Village Center looked at his buddies and said, “YOU are my brothers now.” 

Despite their hell-raising ways, the 511th Parachute Infantry was an elite group of Paratroopers and their strong bonds led them to be called the Band of Brothers of the Pacific. 

The Division’s transports crossed the Pacific to Dobodura, New Guinea, where the 11th Airborne went into strategic reserve, earning its first battle streamer. 

There WAS consideration for a combat drop by the 511th, but that plan was cancelled. 

For six months the Angels swam in the ocean, played sports, and “fished” with grenades. 

They made “moonshine” in the jungle and stole EVERYTHING including Jeeps, weapons, kisses from USO girls and all kinds of food.

Gotta have snackies in the field.

When Oro Bay’s port generator disappeared from the docks, all fingers pointed to the 511th who DID steal it originally, only for General Swing to order it set up in his area. 

Corporal William Walter said, “For the 511th, stealing was a way of life.” 

But the Division WAS preparing for war so the 511th made numerous practice jumps in the jungle and endured long marches through the surrounding mountains on the Kokoda Trail. 

The Angels’ instructors were veterans of earlier island campaigns who warned that the Japanese were cunning, capable, and ruthless. 

The 11th Airborne discovered just HOW ruthless when the division was committed to combat on the island of Leyte in November of ‘44. 

The momentum of Allied units around Leyte’s central mountain range had stalled and someone needed to go up and destroy the enemy’s main supply line, someone who could handle hard marching and hard fighting and who didn’t need mechanized transportation.

Well, that sounded like a job for the Angels so General Swing said, “My boys can do it”. 

As a result, after the Division landed on Leyte, they were sent inland to Burauen right as the monsoon season began. It rained 23 inches in thirty days, filling foxholes and mess kits and leaving trails slippery and muddy. 

This photo shows what Burauen looked like in 1946 and waiting for the Angels in those mountains were Japan’s 16th and 26th Infantry Divisions. 

The 16th participated in the Rape of Nanking, China in 1937 and the 26th captured Corregidor in 1941 then perpetrated the horrific Bataan Death March. 

In 33 days, the 11th Airborne eliminated 6,000 of those butchers on Leyte, and the 511th led the push across the island, suffering 75% of the Division’s casualties in the process. 

This grainy video shows the pass the 511th used to head into the mountains and one record states, “The journey defies description. Sucking mud, jungle vines and vertical inclines exhausted the men before they had marched an hour.”

For the sake of time, I want to share some highlights of what the 511th went through in their drive towards Ormoc Bay.

First, the environment was just awful.

Leeches and insects were everywhere; the mud and rain ate away at gear while jump boots rotted to pieces. And the higher they climbed in elevation, the colder it got in their rain-filled foxholes and tropical diseases like dengue fever left the Angels miserable. 

And then there were the Japanese who attacked like ghosts out of the jungle. 

Even the bravest Paratrooper felt fear during his first banzai attack as the enemy screamed in the dense foliage then charged en masse. 

The fighting was frequently hand-to-hand as these Angels used bayonets, fists, helmets, and shovels as weapons. 

Japanese officers charged with samurai swords held high and Paratroopers blasted them with .45s stolen on New Guinea. 

Snipers hid in trees while other Japanese soldiers jumped out of spider-holes and reinforced positions had to be eliminated along the way.

The 511th faced an enemy that fought to the death, and one Paratrooper said, “After Leyte, Hell was a vacation.” 

The monsoon cloud cover made resupply difficult, and many in the 511th went seven days with nothing to eat, so your dinner tonight would be a feast beyond imagination. 

Some Paratroopers lost 30 pounds, and my hungry grandpa said one time he looked over at his platoon sergeant in their foxhole and thought, “I wonder how he tastes.”

Grandpa later lost all his teeth due to the malnourishment of Leyte.

But the “Always hungry, always tired” 511th kept fighting westward and when three Angels were wounded in a clearing, Medic Robert Lesher reached Corporal Murray Hale first. 

After digging a bullet out of Murray’s shoulder, Robert crawled out to treat the two Paratroopers in the open. 

Everyone told Robert it was too dangerous, but he refused to leave the wounded.

It broke their hearts when a Japanese sniper got this brave medic a few minutes later. 

And most of you know the story of Private Elmer Fryar who earned the Medal of Honor on December 8, 1944, while protecting his company’s flank during a fierce enemy attack. 

Sergeant Wilbur Wilcox said that if not for Elmer, 2nd Battalion could have been wiped out.

Private Fryar is credited with killing 27 Japanese that day, saving the life of a wounded sergeant, and sacrificing his life to protect his platoon leader, Lieutenant Norvin Davis. 

The 511th’s campaign is full of inspiring stories. 

When the regiment set up on Rock Hill outside Mahonag they endured several brutal banzai charges, including one on December 18th.

1st Battalion’s Lieutenant Foster Arnett watched a mortar squad panic and collapse towards the center. Foster immediately jumped out of his foxhole and charged the retreating Angels, shouting, “Get your blankety-blanks back in those holes!” 

It’s the family-friendly version tonight. 

Lieutenant Arnett courageously helped reorganize the defenses and the line held, but his arm was shattered by a Japanese bullet in the process.

Later that day, Chaplain Lee Walker asked 3rd Battalion’s exhausted Paratroopers kneel in the mud for prayer as he asked God to help them in their time of need.

Minutes later, these Angels looked up to see the clouds part just enough for a C-47 to fly overhead to drop badly needed food and supplies. 

It was a Christmas Miracle. 

Four days later, my grandfather’s 1st Platoon of Company D attacked the enemy’s last line of defenses standing between the Angels and Ormoc Bay.

When they reached the summit’s crest 1st Platoon’s troopers found themselves face to face with a column of 150 Japanese soldiers. The Paratroopers became pinned down until PFC John Bittorie charged the Japanese, firing his machine gun from the hip as he did so.

1st Platoon’s thirty-five men won the day, leaving 300 enemy dead behind them. 

The worn-out 511th came down from Leyte’s mountains on Christmas Day, the fourth Christmas in our story, while singing carols and carrying their wounded. 

It was a Christmas they never forgot. 

After a short rest which included a nice Christmas dinner, the 11th Airborne held a review for 8th Army’s General Robert Eichelberger who said, “I am very keen about this 11th Airborne. They are small in number, but they are willing to fight.”

True then. True now. 

General Eichelberger told the Division they were heading to Luzon to liberate a people who had been crushed by the iron boots of tyranny for three years.

One Catholic priest held prisoner by the Japanese told a nearby nun, “If we’re going to get out of this alive, we better pray.”

She replied, “If we’re going to get out of this alive, God will have to send the angels.”

The movie script practically write’s itself because God AND the U.S. Army sent the 11th AIRBORNE Angels to help bring hope and freedom to over 15 MILLION people on Luzon, and those troopers did so using “mortars, machine guns and men of the highest quality” 

While the bulk of the Division landed amphibiously on the Southern Luzon beaches at Nagsubu, the 511th Parachute Infantry jumped on Tagaytay Ridge on February 3rd and 4th.

When General Swing went to send the regiment off, he noticed one Paratrooper sitting on the ground without any equipment. 

When the General inquired where his gear was, this Angel painfully stood up, and Swing could see he had a bad stomach wound. 

But the Paratrooper said he didn’t want to miss their first combat jump, that he wanted to go with his buddies. 

So General Swing gave the wounded trooper his personal weapons, his poncho and his driver’s helmet. 

After landing on Tagaytay, the 511th led the Division’s push into southern Manila where they ran straight into Japanese defenses designed to hold back an entire Corps. 

Pillboxes were on every street corner with interlocking tunnels leading to naval and anti-aircraft gun emplacements which the Japanese used against the Angels on the ground. 

The 511th attacked, taking one street, one pillbox, one reinforced position at a time. 

They assaulted bridges, crossed rivers, and cleared buildings, all while feeding and caring for Filipino refugees along the way. 

It was urban warfare at its worst since the Japanese were also burning and raping their way through the city. 3rd Battalion’s Walter Cass wrote to his family, “The air was constantly filled with artillery and mortar salvos, the banging of rifle fire, the chatter of machine guns, and the whine of ricochets.” 

It was into this maelstrom that the 511th pushed into the city, clearing Imus, Paranaque, Nichols Field and Fort McKinley. 

The 11th Airborne did what on paper an airborne division was not equipped to do. 

But it came at a cost. 

During two weeks of fighting to save the people of Manila, some companies suffered 70% casualties, one of whom was Manuel Perez, who earned the Medal of Honor at Fort McKinley for single-handedly destroying twelve pillboxes and killing OFFICIALLY 18 Japanese. 

His Platoon Sergeant Max Polick said it was more like 75. 

Manuel was killed one month later outside Santo Tomas, and since he was from my old hometown in Oklahoma, I was able to pay respects at his grave last year. 

Of note, the 11th Airborne’s only Medal of Honor recipients were from the 511th.

Another name considered for the medal was Sergeant Mills Lowe who commanded a remote machine gun position near Abilang when he and his twenty-four men were engaged by over 300 Japanese. 

Lowe’s Angels held their own during the first four assaults, but ammunition ran low, so the Sergeant led a scrounging party to collect enemy weapons. 

They returned in time to help hold off a fifth Banzai charge and then the Japanese assaulted a SIXTH and final time from the front AND the rear.

Sergeant Lowe moved between positions to direct fire and encourage his remaining men, but when the enemy broke through the perimeter, the fighting became hand-to-hand. 

The enemy overran one of their guns, so Sergeant Lowe attacked with grenades then personally killed eight Japanese before manning the gun. 

The next day, Lowe’s men counted fifty Japanese dead by his hand. 

I have read through hundreds of the Angels’ commendations, and in the words of PFC Robert LeRoy, “There were no boys in this fight — nothing but men, blood, sweat and tears.” 

The legacy of the 511th Parachute Infantry is one of HEROES. 

On February 23, 1945, the 11th Airborne’s heroes executed their famous raid on the Los Banos Internment Camp where two-thousand civilians faced starvation and death under Japanese guards until the Angels came Down From Heaven. 

The 511th’s Company B dropped from 400 feet and rushed to liberate the camp. 

The rest of 1st Battalion came across Laguna de Bay in Amtracs to protect the camp during the evacuation and to assist the internees.

When those rescued prisoners reached friendly lines at Muntinlupa, they were in line to eat pea soup when they looked up at the American flag flying overhead.

These were everyday men, women and children who had been snatched from the jaws of death by the Angels and when they saw that flag, they began to cry and sing, “God Bless America”.

Last year I sat down with one of the last living internees rescued that day, Patty Kelly-Stevens who, if she was with you today would say: “God Bless the Angels.

My friend Staff-Sergeant James Wilson jumped on Los Banos with B Company, and he later said of the 511th Parachute Infantry:

“We were the best there ever was.”

Indeed, the 511th PIR was an elite unit which destroyed every enemy they faced and the people of Luzon were grateful for it. 

When the 511th “liberated” the Manila Brewery, the owners sent tankers full of fresh beer to thank the Paratroopers. 

PFC Delbert “Bob” Hayes wrote to his family, “We got the ice and put it into our helmets, then set the beer in our helmets.”

Sadly, Bob was killed just before the war’s end. 

Perhaps, Angels, on special occasions you can make your own “Bob Hayes” to honor the fallen. 

The war went on and the 11th Airborne turned south in April of ‘45 to clear the Lipa Corridor then the Malepunyo Mountain Range where Japanese forces had massed for a last-ditch stand against the Americans. 

The 511th’s paratroopers cleared the enemy out of caves and reinforced positions with flamethrowers, demolition charges, pack-howitzers, and courage.

On April 20th, a patrol from E Company was led by Lieutenant Norvin Davis, the same officer whose life had been saved by Elmer Fryar on Leyte.

When Japanese defenders on Hill 2380 opened up on E Company’s troopers, inflicting severe casualties, the patrol was ordered to withdraw. 

While carrying out their dead and wounded, they were hit AGAIN by an even larger enemy force and Lieutenant Davis elected to stay with the wounded until a relief party arrived. 

He would not leave his men. It was a brave decision that cost him his life. 

One month later on the 23rd of June, the 511th’s 1st Battalion participated in the last airborne operation of World War II at Aparri which helped seal off Luzon’s Cagayan Valley.

Two months later, on August 30th, the 511th joined the 11th Airborne as the FIRST full Allied unit to land on Japan where this Division raised the American Flag. 

General Douglas MacArthur selected troopers from the 511th for his Honor Guard on Japan, and I still don’t know if he ever learned that those same Angels stole from his personal store of caviar and wine.  

The 511th’s Angels helped secure the departure docks for the Surrender Ceremony on the USS Missouri and C-511’s former CO Major Tom Mesereau was entrusted to carry the Surrender documents back to Washington. 

SUCH HISTORY. 

The fourth Christmas in our story is, of course, Christmas of 1945 during which many of the 511th’s veterans were discharged. They gratefully returned home to enjoy holidays with their families and went on to lead wonderful lives, but they NEVER forgot the regiment with which they had proudly served.  

Which brings us to the fifth and final Christmas of our story. 

Your Christmas. Your story. 

In six months, your squadron will BE the 511th. 

I hope you will be as proud of your heritage as these original Angels were. 

They made the regiment the best there ever was in the PAST.

Only YOU can make it the best there is TODAY. 

Honor the 511th by keeping it, as Private Sidney Smithson once declared, “the toughest, best damn outfit in the world.” 

I know you can. And I know you will.

And should the 511th be called upon again to defend our nation and our freedoms on some future battlefield, may God have mercy on our country’s enemies, because even the Holy Bible tells of the destruction that falls on those who face the wrath of Angels who come Down From Heaven. 

God bless you, Angels. 

Merry Christmas.