Personal History
PFC Edward A. Peterson 6147317
Ed first joined the Army in October of 1938. During this first tour of duty in the Army, Ed was stationed in Panama to guard the Canal and Atlantic City guarding the boardwalks. This was long before casinos filled the boardwalk there. Ed did get up to the rank of Corporal during his enlistment but had a slight problem keeping that rank. Now, this was a time where military personal sometimes kicked up their heels and Ed was no angel. By the time his enlistment was up, in October of 1941, he had been reduced to the rank of Private for actions concerning a disagreement, in a bar, with a couple of MP's and a bottle of scotch.
Ed was discharged at OD & RD, Brooklyn NY, while in Company I, 5th Infantry. For the next few months, he worked for a security company, the American District Telegraph Co., in Bridgeport. After the war broke out, he decided to re-enlist in the Army in April of 1942. He volunteered for the new Paratrooper training that the Army had started offering a few months earlier. He received his Paratrooper training at Fort Benning along with training as a Paratrooper Demolition Specialist. After some other training, the Army sent him to join the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion which was now in Italy operating as an independent unit with Darby's Rangers.
Ed's unit then made a combat jump into France with the First Airborne Task Force in August of 1944. In December of 1944 the 509th was attached to the 101st Airborne for the Battle of the Bulge. Ed's squad was pinned down near Bastone, Belgium by a German Panzer Grenadier Battalion. By the time Patton's 3rd Army broke through, Ed's unit was low on ammo, food and men. A friend of Ed once told me how Ed had taken out a German tank with a satchel charge. Ed's comment on it was "I was a crazy SOB. I jumped out of planes and blew up things. It was my job and what I was trained to do."
Ed was wounded, while at Bastone, on 29 December 1944. "Shell fragments caused multiple penetrating wounds of the left shoulder, right buttock and medial aspect of the right arm at the elbow." His arm had a compound fracture and he was transported to the 51st Field Hospital. There, the doctor made a decision to put a cast on Ed's arm instead of amputating it which was his first thought as to a course of action. Ed then was shuffled to other medical units (67th General Hospital, Cushing General Hospital, Camp Edwards Convalescent Hospital, etc.) for operations and therapy to give him back use of his arm. He was given his second Honorable Discharge at Cushing General Hospital on 29 December 1945 exactly one year after being wounded at the Battle of the Bulge.
1st Battalion 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment
With the advent of World War Two, the United States Armed Forces foresaw a need for highly mobile units that the Allies could quickly insert into the theater of battle. An experiment began at Fort Benning, Georgia where a group of volunteers began jumping out of perfectly good aircraft while in flight. Thus was born the American Paratroopers, a group of mental misfits who often felt compelled to put their knees in the breeze. Following great debate and an arduous command decision, the United States Army began forming Airborne units for combat. On 14 March 1941, Company A, 504th Parachute Battalion was constituted and then activated on 5 October 1941 at Fort Benning, Georgia.
The 504th moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for training in February 1942, and became part of one of the Army's first Parachute Infantry Regiments. The 503rd and 504th Parachute Infantry Battalions were joined together to form the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, with the 504th being renamed Company D, 503rd Parachute Infantry on 24 February 1942.
As an independent battalion, the 503rd sailed to Scotland in June 1942, becoming the first parachute unit to go overseas inWorld War Two. It was attached to the British 1st Airborne Division for training. The training included mass tactical jumps from C-47 aircraft at 350 feet, extensive night training, and speed marching for 10 miles to and from the training area daily; and on one occasion, 32 miles in 11 hours. On 2 November, as the 503rd was staging for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, it was reorganized and redesignated as Company D, 509th Parachute Infantry. On this momentous day, as C-47's flew over the English countryside, the 509th Paratrooper was born.
The training paid off when the Allied invasion of North Africa was spearheaded. The longest Airborne operation occurred 8 November 1942. After a C-47 flight of over 1600 miles from England, the battalion seized Tafarquay Airport in Oran, Algeria by parachute assault. One week later, after repacking their own chutes (every man was his own rigger in those days), the battalion conducted their second combat jump on 15 November 1942 to secure the airfield at Youk-Les-Bains near the Tunisian border. From this base the battalion conducted combined operations with various French forces against the German Afrika Korps in Tunisia. One unit, the 3rd Regiment of Zouaves (French Algerian Infantry), awarded their own Regimental Crest as a gesture of respect to the American Paratroopers. This badge was awarded to the battalion commander on 15 November 1942 by the 3rd Zouaves' Regimental Commander, and is worn today by all members of the 509th Infantry.
From December 1942 to June 1943, the 509th trained in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. During the invasion of Sicily, the 509th was attached to the 82nd Airborne Division, but was held in division reserve and saw no action in that campaign.
The invasion of Italy began in September 1943 with the amphibious assault at Salerno. The 509th was initially in reserve with the 82nd Airborne Division in Sicily until the beachhead was in danger. On 14 September, while the 82nd Airborne Division dropped inside American lines to reinforce the beachhead, the 509th was assigned the mission of cutting enemy supply lines behind the German defensive positions. The 509th launched its third parachute assault at Avellino, Italy, only to find that the valley DZ was occupied the night before by the 6th German Armored Panzer Division. The 509th operated independently for some two weeks behind German lines in company and platoon size elements disrupting the German rear area. Separate units scrounged for food and water among the Italian civilians until the unit finally reassembled in Salerno on 28 September 1943. Total casualties were 123 killed or captured including the 509th commander and his entire staff.
On 10 December 1943 the battalion was reorganized and redesignated one more time to Company A, 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, and recognized as an independent unit. During this period, October through December 1943, the battalion operated with Darby' s Rangers, and fought as Mountain Infantry in the high ground above Venafro, Italy.
The next operation was an amphibious assault (represented by the fifth arrowhead on the 509th's unit crest) at Anzio, Italy, on 21 January 1944. Still operating with Darby's Rangers, the 509th was in the first assault wave of the invasion force. The Rangers sent two battalions against an elite German Armored Division on the beachhead, while the 509th was assigned a critical defensive position which they held despite heavy losses. For its heroic actions in stopping the desperate German counterattack at Carano, Italy, the 509th was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, the first parachute unit so honored. In addition to the battalion award of 29 February, Charlie Company won a second Presidential Unit Citation for a night attack on 14 March, and Corporal, now Sergeant Major (retired) Paul B. Huff became the first paratrooper to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.
After Anzio, the 509th conducted its fourth parachute assault and fifth combat assault spearheading the attack by the First Airborne Task Force at Le Muy, in southern France, on 14 August 1944. December 1944 saw the 509th attached to the 101st Airborne Division in time for the Battle of the Bulge. In another defensive mission, against incredible odds, the 509th held out from 22 to 30 December at Sadzot, Belgium, against two Panzer Grenadier Battalions, both elite German mechanized infantry units, and earned the battalion its second Presidential Unit Citation. In January, tasked with an offensive mission, the 509th advanced in the hills of St. Vith, Belgium, capturing and holding critical high ground for the passage of the 7th Armored Division. After the action, which left only seven officers and forty-eight enlisted men in the entire battalion, the 509th fell victim to reorganization one last time.
Those that have taken the time to scroll down to this point should click on my Home Page link (below) and sign my guestbook. It will only take a few more minutes and I'd love hearing from those that may have served with a man that meant a lot to me and my family.
- I, my wife and my son,
Sergeant Marc LaBrecque, are proud of what Ed did and glad to have known
him. When asked, he would say his job was to jump from airplanes and
blow up things. He was an example of the courage, honor and values
that our Armed Services hold so dear. It's too bad he couldn't have been
at my son's graduation from Parris Island. I know he would have been
very proud of him and my son would have been proud to have him there. I
salute you "Ed".