![]() Burgett parachuted into the Netherlands, his second combat jump, as part of Operation Market-Garden with the 1st Allied Airborne Army, and fought for 72 days behind the German lines. On May 3, 1943, he reported to the Induction Center where he officially volunteered for the Paratroops, signing the statement "I do hereby volunteer to jump from a plane, while in flight and land on the ground via parachute." He went through Basic Combat Training in Kansas, completed Airborne training in Fort Benning, Georgia, and joined the 101st at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana.īurgett participated in Operation Overlord, parachuting into Normandy as a member of the 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. Burgett volunteered to be called up as soon as he turned 18 the following year. In the opening paragraph of his memoir Currahee!, he wrote that he was determined to follow his older brother Elmer, who had joined the Paratroops in 1942. Burgett served in Company A, 1st Battalion, 506th PIR as both a rifleman and a machine-gunner.īurgett was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up on the city's west side. He was a member of the 101st Airborne Division, ("The Screaming Eagles"), and the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() He was among the Airborne troopers who landed in Normandy early on the morning of D-Day. Burgett (Ap– March 23, 2017) was a writer and a former World War II paratrooper. ![]()
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