US AIRBORNE

The 82nd Parachute Company Maintenance was composed of men of the 504th PIR, 505th PIR, 376th PFAB, 456th PFAB and 307th AEB under the command of Captain Marin.

By mid-February 1944, the company moved to Cottesmore in the county of Rutland, England. They were assigned “A” hangar to pack parachutes. The riggers of the 504th and 505th PIR were stationed at Quorn near Leicester. Later, the Captain Marin was reassigned to his unit and was replaced by the Captain Griffin. This was short lived because the Capt. Griffin, Capt. Wylie Cooper and Lt. Anderson were injured in a jeep accident near Leicester.

After D-Day, a jump school was created by the 82nd Airborne at Ashwell to qualify new parachutists and to replace the losses suffered during the Normandy campaign. Some, members of riggers were assigned in this “school” for a course similar to Fort Benning. From mid-summer until October, the Ashwell’s School format many recruits. Thereafter, the Capt. Griffin came back from the hospital. At this time, the Company was preparing to move to France. But the German offensive in The Ardennes cancelled the move. The Company was sent to the southern England and attached to various airfields around Reading and of Oxford.