Jerry McGlone was drafted in February of May of 1941, went through basic training and was discharged in November 1941 as a buck sergeant.

He and his wife were engaged on December 31, 1941 and married March 2, 1942. this was sooner than they had planned, but Jerry was recalled to the Army and reported on March 7, 1942. He went to Officer Candidate School and graduated as a 1st Lieutenant in June 1942.

He was posted to a training battalion at Camp Roberts California. A training battalion is where the Army sent men who had flunked basic training. Among the men he commanded at Camp Roberts were a dozen Navaho, only one of which spoke any English. He also had several Cajuns who spoke Creole - a combination of French and English. They had to paint footprints on the parade ground to teach these men how to march. Sometime that Fall, Jerry volunteered for the Airborne. He preferred the idea of jumping out of airplanes while being shot at to staying with the training battalion. When he reported to Fort Bragg North Carolina he was disappointed to learn he would not be jumping, but would be riding in something called a glider.

Jerry served in the 101 Airborne Division, 907 Glider Field Artillery Battalion. By the time of the Normandy invasion he was a Captain and commander of Battery B, consisting of 6 105mm howitzers and support troops. On June 6, 1944 the 907th landed at Normandy as part of the sea borne invasion force because there were no gliders for them. July 14 they returned to England.
On September 17,1944 the 907th started for Holland as part of operation Market-Garden, but fog over the English Channel caused most of the glider force, including Jerry, to turn back to England. Four gliders were ditched in the North Sea and the Army tried to charge Jerry for them. Bad weather delayed the returned gliders and men until

September 23rd. Jerry landed at landing zone W. (left)
1341 men arrived safely on the landing zone: 554 of whom belonged to the 1st Battalion of the 327th and 159 to the 81st Airborne Antiaircraft Battalion.
The rest were artillerymen: 337 from the 321st Glider Field Artillery, 190 from the 377th Parachute Field Artillery,
24 from the 907th Glider Field Artillery and the remaining 77 from Division Artillery Headquarters.
An idea of the way this flight was cut to pieces by the fog can be gained from the equipment figures. Of the 160 jeeps that left England only 79 safely reached the LZ. Of the 68 guns only 40 came in. The 321st lost 3, and the 377th lost 1.Hardest hit was the flight of the 907th. All the planes towing its twelve 105 mm howitzers turned back. (text in italics from Rendevous with Destiny page 313) The 907th was assigned to support the 501 Parachute Infantry Regiment who were to capture bridges near Veghel. This is where Battery B fought until relieved by the English. The 907th moved north with the rest of the 101 to "the Island" and stayed in Holland until November 30, when they were sent to Mourmelon near Paris.

On December 18 the 907th drove to Bastogne. Jerry's battery went into place in a triangular depression bordered by two ridges and a raised roadbed near the site of the memorial. Because of the location Battery B did not receive any counter-battery fire through out the siege. After Bastogne, the 907th fought in the Ardennes and then the south of Germany and Austria. Jerry and Battery B were in Weissbach near Munich on V-E Day.

More information about the 907th is to be found in a book called Kilogram (the 907th code name) written by Bob Minick, the nephew of a soldier from Battery A who died during the war. (Above text by James McGlone)

Jerry McGlone
† August 31, 2005

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