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To fellow cadets at West Point, where he graduated in 1922, and to contemporaries during World War II, he was an "intellectual," a scholar who had an affinity for foreign languages. That may have been one reason he was called upon in 1943 for one of the war's most unusual missions, a daring trip by patrol boat to the Italian coast near Rome, then by Red Cross ambulance into the capital for what turned out to be a futile attempt to gain Italian complicity in a landing of U.S. airborne divisions to occupy Rome coincident with the Italian surrender.

MaxWell Taylor and John F. Kennedy

One of the United States Army's airborne enthusiasts, he fought in Sicily and Italy as the Artillery Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. He commanded the 101st Airborne Division in airborne assaults in France on D-Day (June 6, 1944), in Operation Market in the Netherlands andin ground operations during the Battle of the Bulge and the drive through Germany.

His post-World War II career involved many major assignments: Superintendent of West Point; Commander of the Eighth Army in Korea; Army Chief of Staff; Special Military Advisor to President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Ambassador to Vietnam.

He died on April 19, 1987 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In announcing his death, the Pentagon said that he had been admitted to the hopital in mid-January and that he died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nerve cells that is better known as Lou Gerhig's Disease. He was buried in Section 7-A of Arlington National Cemetery, just a short distance from the Memorial Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknowns.

His wife, Lydia Happer Taylor, died on April 22, 1997 at the age of 95, of cardiac arrest at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. She accompanied her husband to assignments in Germany, Vietnam and Japan. She was the co-founder of the Army Distaff Foundation, which later became Knowllwood, a military retirement facility in Northwest Washington.

The objectives of the 101st. were to secure four designated exit causeway roads from the landing beach Utah, also to take intact the bridges over the river Vire and its tributary the Douve. Therefore securing the link between the Omaha and Utah beaches from German intrusion.

The pathfinders were dropped first, under heavy enemy anti-aircraft fire. The pilots of the aircraft, who were already disorientated with the wind and low cloud, came in too low and too fast. Out of 120 pathfinders only 38 were put down on target.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the Day. "Full victory-nothing else" to aratroopers in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe.
(NWDNS-111-SC-194399)

The men of the 101st. were very critical of the aircraft pilots. After some being dropped up to 20 miles off target it is understandable! The first wave arrived over their drop zones at 1:30 a.m. Not one single aircraft carrying the 502nd. Parachute Infantry put them down on their intended drop zone, which was the two northern exits from Utah Beach.

One of the regiments three battalions was so badly scattered, it played no part in the day's fighting. At least two sticks of men landed on the town of Ste-Mere-Eglise and were slaughtered by the Germans. Under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Michaelis the remaining troops collected themselves together and after several firefights secured the two northern exits from Utah.

The 506th. Parachute Infantry who were designated the securing of the two southern exit points from Utah were scattered all over the place with only nine aircraft putting their men down on the correct location. The aircraft came in very low and the paratroops were jumping at 300 ft. no sooner had the chute opened and they were on the ground. Many men broke limbs, some didn't survive the jump. A lot of men landed in the swamp areas flooded by the Germans, the sheer weight of their equipment dragged them down beneath the muddy water. Major-General Maxwell Taylor, the divisional commander, could only muster 85 men of all ranks but knowing the importance of their mission, proceeded to there objective, the villages covering the southern exit roads of Utah beach. They successfully secured these positions.

The final drop zone at the southern most point was a success as far as the accuracy was concerned, but unfortunately the Germans were waiting for them and the two battalions took tremendous casualties. The third battalion 501st. Parachute Infantry landed almost intact, and along with the survivors of the first two battalions managed to secure their objective, the lock at La Barquette over the River Douve.

At 4:00 a.m. the first of the glider borne troops started to arrive. This again was not without incident, only 6 out of the first 52 landed on the correct zone. Many men were killed on landing. Throughout the day gliders landed and the men quickly got up to divisional strength, and successfully secured the Utah exit roads.

The men of the 101st Airborne achieved a tremendous success on D-Day, considering the total disposition they found themselves in. They were put at a terrible disadvantage on landing in Normandy, but the training and determination of these brave men ensured that they would not fail to complete their mission and complete it they did.

The price was high with 182 known killed, 537 wounded and 1240 men missing, most were never found.

Additional Sources:

www.6june44.freeserve.co.uk
www.archives.gov
www.army.mil
www.101airborneww2.com
history.acusd.edu
www.cs.umb.edu
aztec.asu.edu
www2.physics.umd.edu/~yskim/home

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on July 26:
1678 Joseph I Habsburg, German king/Roman catholic emperor (1705-11)
1739 George Clinton NY, (D-R) 4th VP (1805-12)
1796 George Catlin US, author/painter of American Indian scenes
1799 Isaac Babbitt invented babbitt's metal for bearings
1805 Constantine Brumidi artist (Myrtle Murdock)
1829 Auguste Beernaert Belgium (Nobel Peace Prize-1909)
1856 George Bernard Shaw Dublin Ire, dramatist (Pygmalion-Nobel 1925)
1872 George Louis Beer historian (authority on British colonies)
1874 Serge Koussevitzky Vishny-Volotchok, Russia conductor (Boston Symp)
1875 Dr Carl Gustav Jung Switzerland, founded analytic psychology
1876 Ernest Schelling Belvidere NJ, composer/conductor (Victory Ball)
1892 Pearl S Buck US, novelist (The Good Earth)
1894 Aldous Huxley England, author (Brave New World)
1899 Danton Walker Mariette Ga, columnist (Broadway Spotlight)
1902 Gracie Allen SF Calif, Mrs George Burns/comedian (Burns & Allen)
1903 Donald Voorhees Allentown Pa, conductor (Bell Telephone Hour)
1907 Istvan Pelle Hungary, gymnist (Olympic-gold-1932)
1908 Salvador Allende Gossens Chile's last elected president (1970-73)
1913 Lou Salica US, flyweight boxer (Olympic-bronze-1932)
1917 Bertil Nordahl Sweden, soccer players (Olympic-gold-1948)
1917 Richard Burnell England, double sculls (Olympic-gold-1948)
1920 Bob Waterfield NFL QB (Rams)
1922 Blake Edwards writer/director (10, SOB, Breakfast at Tiffany's)
1922 Jason Robards Jr actor (A Thousand Clowns, Act 1, Any Wednesday)
1922 Marjorie Lord SF Calif, actress (Kathy-Danny Thomas Show)
1924 Louis Bellson Rock Falls Ill, orch leader (Pearl Bailey Show)
1926 Don Carter bowling great (1st PBA president)
1926 James Best Corydon Ind, actor (Savages, Sounder, Rolling Thunder)
1928 Stanley Kubrick NYC, director (2001, Dr Strangelove, Lolita)
1929 Alexis Weissenberg Sofia Bulgaria, pianist (Levintritt-1948)
1929 Jean Shepherd humorist (Playboy satire Award 1966, 1967, 1969)
1931 Takashi Ono Japan, gymnist (Olympic-gold-1956, 60)
1936 Kathryn Hays actress (Kim-As the World Turns)
1940 Mary Jo Kopechne Ted Kennedy's d(r)iving buddy
1941 Bobby Hebb Nashville Tn, country singer (Sunny)
1941 Brenton Wood Shreveport La, rocker (Gimme Little Sign)
1941 Darlene Love singer/actress (Lethal Weapon)
1942 Dobie Gray Brookshire Tx, singer (In Crowd)
1943 Mick Jagger Rolling Stone, never gathers moss
1944 Kiel Martin Pitts Pa, actor (Det LaRue-Hill Street Blues)
1944 Micki J King springboard diver (Olympic-gold-1972)
1945 Linda Harrison Berlin Md, actress (Bracken's World, Planet of Apes)
1946 Helen Mirren [Eleni Mironova], England, actress (Cook Thief Wife)
1948 Norair Nurikian Bulgari, bantam weight (Olympic-gold-1972, 76)
1949 Roger Taylor rocker (Queen-Bohemian Rhapsody)
1949 William M Shepherd Oak Ridge Tenn, Capt USN/astronaut (STS-27, 41)
1950 Susan George London England, actress (Straw Dogs, Mandingo)
1951 William Surles "Bill" McArthur Jr Laurinburg NC, Lt Col/astronaut
1952 Ludmila Maslakova USSR, relay runner (Olympic-silver-1980)
1954 Vitas Gerulaitis Brooklyn NY, tennis star (Australia 1987)
1955 Nicholas Walker Bogota Col, actor (Capitol, Jimmy-General Hospital)
1956 Dorothy Hamill Ct, ice figure skater (Olympic-gold-1976)
1961 Andy Connel rocker (Swingout Sister-Swingout)
1961 Gary Cherone Boston, heavy metal vocalist (Extreme-More Than Words)
1963 Andrew C Timmons Scottsdale Az, guitarist (Danger Danger-Screw It)
1965 Jennifer Ashe actress (As the World Turns)
1973 Mike Burke NY Yankees pres/CEO of Madison Sq Garden

Deaths which occurred on July 26:
0796 Offa, king of Mercia (75.-796)
1342 Charles I Robert van Anjou, King of Hungary (1307-42)
1863 Sam Houston president of Texas, dies at 70
1925 William Jennings Bryan jurist, dies
1941 Marx Dormoy French socialist, killed by a time bomb
1952 Eva "Evita" Peron Argentina's 1st lady, dies in Buenos Aires at 33
1965 Constance Bennett actress, dies at 59
1982 Betty Walker actress (Steve Lawrence Show), dies at 54
1984 Ed "Psycho" Gein dies
1986 Averell Harriman statesman, dies in Yorktown Heights, NY at 94
1990 Brian Mydland keyboardist (Grateful Dead), dies at 38

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 BRAZIK RICHARD BAY VILLAGE OH.
[SURVIVAL UNLIKELY]
1967 CLAFLIN RICHARD AMES KANSAS CITY KS.
[SURVIVAL UNLIKELY]
1969 BRENNING RICHARD D. LINCOLN NE.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
657 Mu'awiyan defeats Caliph Ali in the Battle of Siffin in Mesopotamia.
0811 Battle at Pliska: Bulgarian under monarch Krum beat Byzantine
1529 Francisco Pizarro receives a royal warrant to "discover and conquer" Peru.
1775 Benjamin Franklin becomes 1st Postmaster General
1788 New York becomes 11th state to ratify constitution
1790 US passes Assumption bill making US responsible for state debts
1835 1st sugar cane plantation started in Hawaii
1847 Liberia declares independence from American Colonization Society
1848 1st Woman's Rights Convention (Senecca Falls NY)
1858 Baron Lionel de Rothschild is 1st Jew elected to British Parliament
1863 At Salineville, OH John Hunt Morgan & 364 troops surrender
1865 Patrick Francis Healy is 1st black awarded PhD (Louvain Belgium)
1866 Canoe Club opens in England
1887 1st Esperanto book published
1905 P Gotz discovers asteroid #568 Cheruskia
1908 Federal Bureau of Investigation established
1918 Britain's top war ace, Edward Mannock, is shot down by ground fire on the Western Front.
1918 Race riot in Philadelphia (3 whites & 1 black killed)
1920 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified
1926 National Bar Association incorporates
1928 Yanks score 11 runs in 12th beating Tigers 12-1
1933 Joe Dimaggio ends 61 game hitting streak in Pacific Coast League
1939 Yankee catcher Bill Dickey hits 3 consecutive HRs
1943 120ø F (49ø C), Tishmoningo, Oklahoma (state record)
1945 Churchill resigns as Britain's PM
1947 Department of Defense established
1947 National Security Act establishes the CIA
1948 1st black host of a network show-CBS' Bob Howard Show
1948 Pres Truman issues Executive Order No. 9981 directing "equality of treatment & opportunity" in the armed forces
1949 C A Wirtanen discovers asteroid #1951 Lick
1952 Mickey Mantle hits his 1st grand-slammer
1952 King Farouk I of Egypt abdicates
1953 Cuban pirate radio station's 1st transmission at Santiago de Cuba
1953 Fidel Castro leads attack on Moncada Barracks, begins Cuban rev
1955 Ted Allen throws a record 72 consecutive horseshoe ringers
1956 Egypt seizes Suez Canal
1957 Mickey Mantle hits career HR # 200
1957 USSR launches 1st intercontinental multistage ballistic missile
1958 Army launches 4th US successful satellite, Explorer IV
1959 C Hoffmeister discovers asteroid #2183
1963 US Syncom 2, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite, launched
1964 Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa convicted of fraud & conspiracy
1964 Train from Povoa de Varzin, Portugal derails near Oporto, 94 die
1965 Republic of Maldives gains independence from Britain (Nat'l Day)
1967 Twins beat Yanks 3-2 in 18
1969 Sharon Sites Adams, 39, becomes 1st lady to solo sail the Pacific
1971 Apollo 15 launched to the Moon
1971 N Chernykh discovers asteroid #1836 Komarov
1974 USSR's Soyuz fails to dock with Salyut 3
1975 Soyuz 18B returns to Earth
1979 Estimated 109 cm (43") of rain falls in Alvin, TX (national record)
1981 2 climbers rappell 550 m down cliff near Angel Falls, Venezuela
1981 E Bowell discovers asteroids #2845 Franklinken & #2882 Tedesco
1981 NY Mayor Ed Koch is given Heimlich maneuver in a Chinese restaurant
1982 Canada's Anik D1 Comsat launched by US Delta rocket
1983 Challenger moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating for STS-8
1983 Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czech sets 800m woman's record (1:53.28)
1986 Lebanese kidnappers released Rev Lawrence Martin Jenco
1988 Mike Schmidt sets NL record appearing in 2,155 games at 3rd base, as
Phillies & NY Mets end that game at 2:13 AM
1990 General Hospital tapes its 7,000th episode
1990 US beats the Soviet Union 17-0 in baseball at the Goodwill Games
1991 Expo's Mark Gardner no hits Dodgers for 9 innings, but loses in 10th
1991 Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) is arrested in Florida, for exposing
himself at an adult movie theater
1991 Secretary of State James A. Baker III addressed Mongolia's first legislature chosen in multiparty elections.
1996 President Clinton rejected a clemency plea from Jonathan Pollard, who'd spent more than 10 years in prison for spying for Israel.
2000 A federal judge in New York approved a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and more than a half million plaintiffs who alleged the banks had hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Athens, Texas : Black-Eyed Peas Jamboree starts
Cuba : Anniversary of Moncada Barricks attack (1953)
Liberia : Independence Day (1847)
Maldives : National Day (1965)
New York : Ratification Day (1788)
Sweden : Bellman Day- honoring Carl Michael Bellman
Virgin Islands : Hurricane Supplication Day ( Monday )
Gilroy, California : Garlic Festival ( Friday )

Religious Observances
RC : Commemoration of St Bartolomea Capitania, Italian foundress
RC : Memorial of SS Joachim & Anne, parents of Virgin Mary

Religious History
1603 James VI of Scotland was crowned King James I of England. He then 'authorized'an English translation of the Scriptures, first published in 1611 and known since as the'King James Version' of the Bible.
1741 English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: 'Venture daily uponChrist, go out in His strength, and He will enable you to do wonders.'
1869 In England, the Disestablishment Bill was passed, officially dissolving the Churchof Ireland. (Organized opposition to this legislation coined one of longest words in theEnglish language: antidisestablishmentarianism.)
1926 The sanctuary of Our Lady of Victory, in Lackawanna, NY, became the first RomanCatholic church in the U.S. to be consecrated a basilica.
1935 The Open Bible Standard Churches was formed when two smaller revival movementswith similar objectives merged. OBSCI is headquartered today in Des Moines.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"There are two sides to every question, politicians take both."

Today's 'You Might Be A Minnesooootain If' Joke...
you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping the food will swim by.

Murphy's Law of the Day...
The less you want to be somewhere, the more likely every light will be green and traffic clear.(car laws)

Cliff Clavin says, It's a little know fact...
The ashes of the average cremated person weigh nine pounds.