By Michael Howell
When Golda Weber first met WWII veteran Carl Paul she was inspired. Paul had started the first chapter of the National 82nd Airborne Division Association west of the Mississippi in Kamiah, Idaho. The next thing you know, Weber was secretary/treasurer of the Montana Chapter which was chartered in 2003. The Chapter has met about twice annually since then at Weber’s home in Stevensville. This year was no different and the group met at her home last week. Four WWII veterans, all over 90 years old, were in attendance, including Ray Grossman, Delmar Shaw, Jim Johnson, and Carl Paul.
Paul was a shining star at the gathering, not just because he is 101 years old, but because he has four gold stars on his 82nd Airborne paratrooper’s pin that he wears on his cap, one star for each combat jump during the war.
The 82nd Infantry Division was formed in WWI and disbanded following the war. But in February 1942, it was redesignated as Division Headquarters, 82nd Division. It was recalled to service in March 1942 and in August became the Army’s first airborne division, and was redesignated the 82nd Airborne Division. By April the Division’s paratroopers had been deployed to North Africa where they prepared to take part in the invasion of Italy. The division’s first two combat operations were parachute assaults into Sicily on July 9 and Salerno on September 13. The initial assault on Sicily, by the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was the first regimental-sized combat parachute assault conducted by the United States Army.
Paul made combat jumps into Sicily and Salerno as a member of that regiment.
By the time the All-American Division, as it was called, was pulled back to England, it had seen 33 days of bloody combat and suffered 5,245 troopers killed, wounded, or missing. Major General Matthew Ridgway’s post-battle report stated in part, “…33 days of action without relief, without replacements. Every mission accomplished. No ground gained was ever relinquished.”
Paul’s third combat jump took place as part of Operation Overlord in the Netherlands and then as part of Operation Garden Market and the invasion of Holland. That operation called for three-plus airborne divisions to seize and hold key bridges and roads deep behind German lines.
All four of the WWII paratroopers at the Chapter meeting in Stevensville were recorded for posterity talking about their experiences during the war.