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FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- When George Mahon looks back at the 91 years
that have comprised his life, he has many things to be proud of.
There are his five sons and a daughter, and his long-time career as
a roofer.
One facet of his past shines more brightly in his
memory than all the rest, however.
On June 10, 1942, Mahon
enlisted in the Army. Soon after he raised his right hand Mahon
earned a free trip to Europe to fight in World War II alongside
paratroopers with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment -- now the
1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. His memories
serving as a "Devil in Baggy Pants" are crystal clear, and are a
great source of pride for the veteran.
Mahon shared his Army
story and World War II tales, September 16-20, 2013, with paratroopers from
the Devil brigade here. He said the 82nd Airborne Division was --
and remains -- the best division in the Army.
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George Mahon, a World War II veteran who served with Company E,
504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which is now the 82nd Airborne
Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, visits with paratroopers from
Company C, 2nd Battalion, 504th PIR, Sept. 20, 2013, at Fort Bragg,
N.C. The 91-year-old veteran shared his Army story and World War II
tales with paratroopers throughout the Devil brigade. (U.S. Army
photo by Staff Sgt. Mary S. Katzenberger)
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Like many young adults in the 1940s, Mahon said he
enlisted in the Army out of a sense of patriotism instilled
by his family. His original military occupational specialty
was armor, but his leadership quickly steered him into
becoming a communications sergeant. But Mahon said he wasn't
fulfilled working with radios.
"When you're nineteen
years old you want to get in the fight, you want to be in
the infantry, period," Mahon said. "But it isn't like the
movies the way it turns out."
The veteran said he got his chance to become an infantryman
when recruiters from Fort Benning, Ga., visited his unit.
Mahon was told if he volunteered to earn his paratrooper
badge and passed the airborne school physical, his unit
couldn't hold him. He signed up right away.
"They
came out with trucks and carried us to an assembly area
called the frying pan," Mahon said of his first day at
airborne school. "They took us all out, told us to strip
down to our underwear shorts and we hadn't gone ten steps
before they had us double-timing. They double-timed us three
miles.
"When we got those three miles they said we're
taking a ten minute break and they turned us around and
double-timed us back," Mahon continued.
The veteran
said coming from a "soft" job where he had his own military
jeep with a driver to the physical demands of airborne
school was tough, but he wasn't going to flunk out. Mahon
said once he graduated the course, his entire class was
slated to be transferred to Europe because the Army had lost
23 planeloads of paratroopers from the 504th and 505th
Parachute Infantry Regiments in the Allied invasion of
Sicily.
The veteran said he had to volunteer to go
with his class, though, because the Army was only taking a
small percentage of non-commissioned officers. Volunteering,
in turn, meant Mahon had to give up his sergeant stripes.
The freshly-minted enlisted man said he was sent to
Casablanca in North Africa, traveled by boat to Naples,
Italy, and finally by boat to Anzio, Italy. In Anzio, Mahon
was assigned to Company E, 504th PIR, and was sent to the
front lines with a Browning automatic rifle. After serious
fighting and success at Anzio, Mahon said his unit tackled a
new objective.
"The next combat we saw was in
Holland, which was a good jump," Mahon said. "My company ...
jumped south of the Grave Bridge."
The paratrooper
said he didn't face the combat jump with fear, but with a
practical, military mind.
"The first thing going
through our minds was they let us know we were going to be
jumping at 450 feet," Mahon said. "So everybody was taking
their reserves off and leaving them on the plane.
"Jumping low like that, it was different," the veteran
continued. "We caught a little flak but mostly the Air Corps
kept us clean. You jump, the prop blast [hit and your
parachute] opened, you oscillated frontwards [and] backwards
[and on] your next forward pass you were on the ground."
Mahon said he saw a lot more combat before he came home,
and remembers fighting for 18 hours straight one time while
sleet and snow poured down on him. The paratrooper almost
redeployed unscathed, until he met up with a concussion
grenade while out on a contact patrol.
Mahon
recovered from his injuries, returned to his unit and
ultimately redeployed to leave Army service.
The
paratrooper says the thing he misses most about his time
serving as a "Devil in Baggy Pants" is the camaraderie.
"My platoon, that was my family," Mahon said. "That
platoon was tight and you could trust your life to any man
there."
Mahon added that today's paratroopers -- like
the ones he visited -- are no different. He said if they
consider their platoon their family it will make them a
better outfit.
Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan P. Brooks, who
escorted Mahon for the week, said the visit made him realize
that paratroopers stay the same regardless of what era or
generation they come from. He added that it is important for
young paratroopers to pay attention to lessons learned in
the past.
"When he was standing in front of the
formation addressing the younger paratroopers I personally
believe that George was looking at himself 70 years ago,"
Brooks said. "He reinforced to them why they do what they do
[and] why we train as hard as we do; [we do so] because both
of the generations that were present that day have witnessed
an attack on U.S. soil."
Brooks said Mahon is the
truest example of what being a member of the "Greatest
Generation" was all about.
"They were the ones that
dug us out of the Great Depression, that didn't believe in
hand-outs or want any sympathy," Brooks said. "They stood up
for what was right."
By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Mary S. Katzenberger
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2013
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