511^th Parachute Infantry Regiment

The 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, on January 5, 1943, and joined the 11th Airborne Division the following month at Camp Mackall. After airborne training and maneuvers in the United States, it deployed to the Pacific in 1944, reaching New Guinea in May and Leyte in November. On Leyte the regiment began a hard movement from Burauen toward Mahonag on November 25. Moving through difficult terrain in small groups, its 3d Battalion reached Mahonag on December 6, and the regiment later pushed west along the Talisayan River toward the Ormoc Bay plain.

On Luzon, the 511th made the division's parachute assault on Tagaytay Ridge on February 3, 1945. Although many men landed outside the intended drop zone, the regiment quickly assembled, secured the ridge, and opened the way for the advance on Manila. The next day it drove north through Imus and Las Pinas toward the Paranaque River. On February 5 it forced the crossing and fought house to house and pillbox to pillbox toward Nichols Field.

At Nichols Field the regiment held the western edge of the fight, expanding a narrow strip between the Paranaque River and the runway while the 187th and 188th attacked from other directions. Colonel Orin D. Haugen, the regimental commander, was killed on February 11. The airfield was largely cleared by February 13.

The 511th then contributed parachute elements to the Los Banos rescue on February 23 and entered the southern Luzon campaign. It fought at Mt. Bijang in March, then at Mt. Malepunyo and Mt. Mataasna Bundoc in April as organized Japanese resistance south of Manila collapsed. Its final combat operation came on June 23, when a reinforced battalion combat team dropped at Camalaniugan Airfield near Aparri and linked with the 37th Infantry Division three days later. The regiment moved to Okinawa and Japan after the campaign.