Fred B. Morgan Junior was one of the original members of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He went through jump school in July 1942 in the Frying Pan [Annotator's Note: nickname for Fort Benning, Georgia based on the heat and humidity combined with living in unairconditioned, tar paper buildings] at Fort Benning and graduated in August 1942. He was originally assigned to H Company [Annotator's Note: Company H, 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment] as an infantryman and qualified on the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. They discovered he had been at a station hospital prior to applying to parachute school so he was made a medic. He trained in the Fort Benning Hospital and learned about surgery and first aid. His officer was Major Dave Thomas [Annotator's Note: US Army Major David E. Thomas] who was the regimental surgeon while he was in Alabama. The parachute medic had the same training as the infantry medic. The only difference was they parachuted with the men. Once on the ground they were infantry. The 505 joined the 82nd Airborne Division after training in February 1943. They trained with the 82nd until April 1943 and then went to Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. They then took 40-and-eights [Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses] to Oujda in French Morocco. It was about 120 degrees during the day, so they trained at night. They lived in pup tents but could not sleep due to the heat. They trained for miles every night.

In July 1943, Fred B. Morgan, Junior [Annotator's Note: a medic with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division], loaded up to make his first combat jump into Sicily [Annotator's Note: Operation Husky, 9 July to 17 August 1943; Sicily, Italy]. It was well planned, but not well organized. They were spread over a 45 to 50 mile area. It worked to their advantage as it made the Germans think they were a much larger force. There were very few medics. Captain Ed Sayre [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Edwin M. Sayre] was the commander of A Company [Annotator's Note: Company A, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] and he organized about 40 men, including Morgan, to take their objective. They were eventually driven back by the Germans and teamed up with the 1st Infantry Division coming off the beach. They fought with them for a while and then were relieved to the rear area. The regiment was reformed and started moving across Sicily. Their objective was Trapani [Annotator's Note: Trapani, Sicily, Italy] and shortly after that the war in Sicily ended. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Morgan to describe the invasion in more detail.] Morgan landed all by himself and it was a lonely feeling. It was one or two o'clock in the morning. He found others and they ran into Sayre. There was a garrison on a hill, and they took that. German tanks then drove them out of there. They moved to the beach and met up with the 1st Infantry Division. The first casualty was Riley [Annotator's Note: US Army Staff Sergeant Richard S. Riley], a machine gunner with A Company. Another medic and Morgan started moving him towards the rear. They did not have much to take care of him with. They hoped they would run into troops from the beach. The Navy was firing shells into the area and the shrapnel sounded like a Piper Cub [Annotator's Note: Piper J-3 Cub light observation aircraft] flying through the air. An Italian tank spotted them but could not shoot low enough to hit them. Eventually they found out that Riley had died there. They had to leave him there and returned to Captain Sayre. They then went back to the rear area. Gavin [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin] was quite a distance away and it took a few days to all get together. They were to move and capture the town of Trapani. They moved quickly and occupied Trapani. They returned to North Africa [Annotator's Note: 19 August 1943]. In September [Annotator's Note: 4 September 1943], they moved to Sicily. The beachhead had been established at Salerno [Annotator's Note: Operation Avalanche, 9 to 16 September 1943, Salerno, Italy], but the 36th Infantry [Annotator's Note: 36th Infantry Division] was being driven back. One o'clock in the morning on 17 September [Annotator's Note: 17 September 1943], they were loaded into aircraft and bailed out over Paestum [Annotator's Note: Paestum, Italy] near Salerno. They fought through Italy and made it into Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy, 1 October 1943]. Before that, they had made a beach landing in Maiori [Annotator's Note: Maiori, Italy]. The British were already there. It was raining. They moved north and into Naples. They stayed a few days.

Fred B. Morgan, Junior [Annotator's Note: a medic with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] boarded a ship in Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy in October 1943] and went to Northern Ireland for a month or so [Annotator's Note: in December 1943]. They moved over to England. It was great and they became friendly with the English people. They trained for the jump into Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. A week or ten days before, they loaded up in buses and went to the airfield. They did not know where they were going until the last minute. They did not pay too much attention to what was going on. That night there was an incident in the area. They were loaded up and there was a tremendous explosion in a nearby aircraft. They called for medics, so Morgan had to go out. The first man coming towards him was Roy Smith, who was bleeding profusely. He started giving him first aid. An ambulance came up and the base medics took over. Morgan got back on his aircraft. In Normandy, he found out it was Headquarters people in that aircraft. Four of them were killed. Of the 20 men, two got on other aircraft. One was a mortarman, Fryer [Annotator's Note: Army Sergeant Melvin J. Fryer]. A few days after they took the town of Sauveur-le-Vicomte [Annotator's Note: Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, France] they took artillery fire. Morgan rushed to the aid of a man and it was Fryer [Annotator's Note: 18 June 1944]. He had a large piece of shrapnel in his side and his leg was blown off. Morgan could do nothing for him. He had survived the plane on the tarmac and now was lying there dead. That was typical of medics. At any call they were there, even with shells flying. Morgan was hit that night superficially. He has never forgotten that and never will. The other man who had gotten on another plane, Charlie Lieberth [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] from A Company, was struck by an 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88-millimeter, multi-purpose artillery] in Normandy and was seriously wounded. Morgan rushed to him and Lieberth saw a German tank coming. Lieberth told Morgan to get out of there. The tank stopped, the turret cover opened, the German looked out at them, went back in, and drove on. Lieberth told Morgan that there is honor on the battlefield after all.

In Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], Fred B. Morgan, Junior and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] suffered heavy casualties. He was running all over collecting the wounded. They established an aid station near the La Fière bridge [Annotator's Note: near Sainte-Mère-Église, France on 9 June 1944]. They were extremely limited with what they could do for them. They did not have penicillin [Annotator's Note: an antibiotic] and used sulfa powder [Annotator's Note: group of synthetic drugs used to treat bacterial infections] on the wounds. They had morphine [Annotator's Note: narcotic used to treat pain]. They could not be evacuated until the seaborne forces came in. They lost people due to that. It was a very busy time for medics. He had landed the closest to the drop zone of any regiment. He landed in a tree, and it was so dark, he could not see the ground. He got his knife out, but his hands were shaking, and he dropped the knife. Suddenly he heard loud whispers. They got him down out of the tree. They moved towards the bridge. They started receiving fire from a tank [Annotator's Note: a German tank] across the river. They had nothing to combat the tank with. The mortar people had knocked out a vehicle on the bridge that blocked it. The bazooka [Annotator's Note: man-portable recoilless anti-tank weapon] men were on the bridge and a 57mm [Annotator's Note: M1 57mm anti-tank gun; American name for the British Ordnance Quick-Firing 6-pounder 7 cwt] eventually got there. At each German advance, the mortar men would fire on them. Blocking that bridge saved them from having tanks come across. They lost their battalion commander, Kellam [Annotator's Note: US Army Major Frederick C.A. Kellam], their exec, McGinity [Annotator's Note: US Army Major James E. McGinity], and their operations officer, Captain Royston [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. It was hell. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Morgan to go into more detail.] They moved to setup the aid station soon after the drop. Soon the 88mm tank shells [Annotator's Note: from a Tiger I, Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E, German heavy tank] were flying. They did not get direct fire in the aid station. The artillery fire was when they were moving along the road and were spotted. The mortars were pretty well dug in, but it was chaos for a few hours on D-Day. Morgan rushed to Lieutenant Coxon [Annotator's Note: US Army First Lieutenant Donald G. Coxon] but he was already dead. Coxon was along a hedgerow [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] off the road on the way to the bridge. There were a number of dead there. He and the other medics were just rushing from casualty to casualty. They were getting casualties from machine guns and tank fire. The Germans made attempts to get over the bridge. They were still operating when the Germans were flushed out. He does not think they took care of German casualties there but did later in the war. Until the 4th Infantry Division contacted them, they had no place to send the wounded. Morgan did not know of the deaths of Kellam, McGinity, and Royston until later. He was just taking care of casualties and never even saw those men. The casualties started pouring in not long after daylight on D-Day and were very close to the road near the bridge. The Germans had it zeroed in. One shell landed down below, and the dirt buried Morgan. A medic with him reported that he had been killed. It seemed to Morgan that it was a continuous thing there with the action. He was continuously busy and not aware of any lulls in the action. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks if Morgan assisted with getting ammunition to the troops.] The only thing he ever did was his job as the first aid man. That kept him busy enough. The infantry could take care of themselves.

Fred B. Morgan, Junior [Annotator's Note: a medic with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] and the other medics socialized with the infantry soldiers to a degree with the units in the battalion. In the rear area it was not strictly medics. They were tremendous and he admired and respected all of them. He has never found men like that. The parachute outfit was close knit. They made a regimental jump before they went overseas. One aircraft lost altitude and ran into a group of paratroopers. Kelly Byars [Annotator's Note: Army Private Kelly W. Byars] had his chute cut off. He came down using his reserve chute. He was given 24 hours to decide if he would quit the outfit or would remain with it. He decided to remain. He and Morgan were very close friends. They would go on weekend trips together. He was an A Company [Annotator's Note: Company A, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] medic, had many close calls, and lived a charmed life. He was the first medic to go back to the United States and they never saw him again. Morgan learned later that he committed suicide. The men did their job under very difficult, terrifying circumstances. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Morgan about combat at the La Fière bridge near Sainte-Mere-Eglise (Sainte-Mère-Église), France, 9 June 1944.] He and the other medics worked together. They had to conceal themselves as much as possible. The Germans made it very dangerous to go out to get casualties and rescue them. But they did it. They had no communications. All they heard was "Medic!”. La Fière stands out because they were outnumbered, taking enemy fire, having tremendous casualties, but they held the bridge. It was typical of his outfit. He traces it back to training, dedication, and great leadership from the officers and NCOs [Annotator's Note: non-commissioned officers]. To Morgan, General Gavin [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin] was the most outstanding leader of World War 2. He was on the front line and had a lot to do with who was going to be a company commander. He would test new replacements on a probation period. A number of them did not make it. Morgan admired the leadership. Gavin set the example.

When Fred B. Morgan, Junior was working [Annotator's Note: as a medic with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] near the La Fière bridge [Annotator's Note: near Sainte-Mere-Eglise (Sainte-Mère-Église), France, 9 June 1944], there were men with minor wounds who did not want to be evacuated. If they had penetrating wounds, there was no way they could stay. Even then, many did not want to. There were many people who fought with dressed wounds. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks if Morgan recalls anything in particular that Army Private Kelly W. Byars did during that battle.] There were any number of people that did a number of outstanding things. Byars was an A Company [Annotator's Note: Company A, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] medic. Morgan did not specifically see him administer aid. There were a number of medics. When he saw how the men were cared for, he would have an idea of who treated him because of which platoon he came from. Captain Stenhouse [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Gordon C. Stenhouse] was in charge of the aid station. He was an obstetrician in civilian life. He was quiet, unassuming, and an outstanding individual. He really cared for his men. Morgan served with him from the beginning until the end. In Italy, Stenhouse contracted a disease and could not hold sick call. He asked Morgan to step in for him. Stenhouse would stand up with shells coming in. It did not seem to bother him. Morgan was close enough to the action to know what was going on. Those with minor casualties would tell them some of what was going on. They just hoped they could hold the bridge. They were relieved by the 4th Division [Annotator's Note: 4th Infantry Division]. As soon as the 1st Battalion was pulled back, they formed the evacuation channel to get the casualties out. After that, they reorganized and went north to the 90th Division [Annotator's Note: 90th Infantry Division] who was not doing well. They moved in all different directions. They were there for 33 days and then relieved. They had been used as the spearhead for the green [Annotator's Note: slang for new or inexperienced] divisions coming in off the beach. They were involved with the 90th, the 4th, the 79th[Annotator's Note: 79th Infantry Division], and the 8th [Annotator's Note: 8th Infantry Division] who relieved them. They burned their clothing and then headed back to England [Annotator's Note: 13 July 1944].

Fred B. Morgan, Junior [Annotator's Note: a medic with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] went into Holland on a beautiful Sunday afternoon [Annotator's Note: Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 17 to 25 September 1944]. They were flying over an area that was flooded. They would see antiaircraft artillery firing up at them. They had P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] with them that would fly down and take out those installations. When they flew over the occupied land, people were waving white sheets and rags at them. It was a daylight jump. They landed in a plowed field. They assembled and the gliders started coming in. He wondered how they did not run into one another. He saw one hit a tree and fall over on its back. A shot-up P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] made a wheels-up landing. The pilot was a young second lieutenant in his dress uniform with a leather jacket. They moved off and ran into an ammunition dump that was below ground. Fortunately they were able to capture the Germans. Morgan walked into the mess hall. There was food on the plates and a radio was blaring, broadcasting the invasion of Holland. Within the next 24 hours they met tremendous resistance and there was a big battle around Mook [Annotator's Note: Mook en Middelaar, Netherlands]. It took a few days to get up to Nijmegen [Annotator's Note: Nijmegen, Netherlands] and capture the bridge. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Morgan about the battle at Mook.] They did well when they first encountered the Germans, but then the Germans drove them back. The Germans tried to blow the bridge at Nijmegen, but it was prevented. The 504th Parachute Regiment [Annotator's Note: 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] made a dash across the river and secured the other end of the bridge. They had tough battles there. They moved close to Kleve [Annotator's Note: Kleve, Germany] in Beek [Annotator's Note: Beek, Netherlands] where they set up their aid station in a defensive position. About two o'clock in the morning, a patrol went out to a mined area. They had a wounded man that the patrol could not move. Morgan and another medic took a litter into get the man. They got him back and evacuated. Once they took the bridge, they setup defensively hoping the British would get to Arnhem [Annotator's Note: Arnhem, Netherlands] to contact the Germans and the Red Devils [Annotator's Note: British 1st Airborne Division]. The British never made it. Morgan feels they did not move quickly enough. If it had been Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.], they would have made it and saved a few thousand of the Red Devils.

The Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] was the worst situation under the worst conditions that Fred B. Morgan, Junior ever encountered. He and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] had only been back from Holland about three weeks. They were ill-equipped and had no winter clothing. They got up to the battle and the Germans were well-prepared. It was the worst situation for him in World War 2. Most of the casualties were frostbite that developed into trench foot [Annotator's Note: immersion foot syndrome]. They picked up a staff sergeant off the line and someone had taken care of him. He said not to worry about him because General Gavin [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin] had taken care of him. The man's leg had been blown off, his other foot and hands were frozen, and he had a hole in the side of his cheek. He was in total shock. Morgan knew he would lose his other foot and possibly his hands. They did have casualties wounded by artillery and mortar fire, but most were frostbite wounds. There was no airpower for days. The last mission he had in the Bulge was moving down to the Vielsalm River and town [Annotator's Note: near Trois Ponts, Belgium]. This was on Christmas Eve [Annotator's Note: 24 December 1944]. They heard the Germans mobilizing on the other side of the river. They were ordered to move back, and the Germans attacked. Morgan and his outfit got to high ground by daylight and setup in defensive positions. Eventually the weather cleared, and the air forces started flying. In January [Annotator's Note: January 1945], they were able to move forward. They fought around Schmidt, Germany but did not have much combat. They were close to the Hurtgen Forest [Annotator's Note: Hürtgen (Hurtgen), Staatsforst (state forest), Germany] too. There were no branches left on the trees [Annotator's Note: after the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, 19 September 1944 to 10 February 1945]. Their last mission was to establish the bridgehead at the Elbe River [Annotator's Note: near Bleckede, Germany, 30 April 1945]. The war was pretty well over, and it was more like an exercise than a combat mission. They had gone into Neuhaus [Annotator's Note: Neuhaus, Germany] but were ordered to withdraw to let the Russians in. While the Russians were there, they ransacked the town and raped the women. They got that information from a priest. Then 8 May [Annotator's Note: 8 May 1945] came along and that was it [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945].

Holding the bridge at La Fière [Annotator's Note: near Sainte-Mere-Eglise (Sainte-Mère-Église), France, 9 June 1944], represents an accomplishment of a major battle for the 82nd [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division]. Fred B. Morgan, Junior and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] had nothing they could compare to a Mark VI tank [Annotator's Note: Tiger I, Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E, German heavy tank] with an 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm gun] but they were able to hold back the Germans. The Germans outnumbered them, had much more superior equipment, and everything about them was superior but they were able to hold that bridge and hold back reinforcements. That was one of the major accomplishments of the war for the 505th. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Morgan how it worked.] It is hard to explain. The men held their ground, refused to move back, fired the weapons they had, and maybe the Germans realized they could not make it. Morgan feels fortunate and lucky. The individuals who were paratroopers were not going to run. In Sicily [Annotator's Note: Operation Husky, 9 July to 17 August 1943, Sicily, Italy], Gavin [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin] said that they would fight no matter how few in number. That prevailed. Before they went into Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], Gavin stood on the hood of a jeep and told them to look to their right and left because two of the three would probably not come back. He told them they had a job to do, they were expendable, and he expected them to do it. By the time he finished talking, they were willing to go to hell and back. He led them himself. He jumped with them and was on the front line. He lost several aides. At the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] he took care of a man who was badly wounded. That was Gavin. Morgan idolized him. He has a photograph of Gavin pinning his second lieutenant bars on him. Morgan will treasure it forever. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Morgan if they would have been as successful without Gavin and with Ridgeway.] Ridgeway [Annotator's Note: US Army General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, Commander, 82nd Airborne Division] was outstanding also. Gavin and Ridgeway made a great team. For the 505, it was Gavin. At La Fière, they were all thinking of Gavin and knew he would be there. They knew how well he trained them. At Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia], some guys went to Cotton's Fish Camp in Phenix City [Annotator's Note: Phenix City, Alabama] and got rolled [Annotator's Note: mugged]. The next night, they were going get weapons and go level the Fish Camp. Word got back to Gavin, and he had the whole regiment fall out in combat gear. Gavin led them into the swamps for three days. This was the type of leadership they trained under.

Fred B. Morgan, Junior is glad he was a medic [Annotator's Note: with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] and not an infantryman. He never missed a day with the 505. He made four combat jumps, six battle campaigns, and saw so many wounded men who he never saw again. He saw numerous deaths. It was the greatest period of his life, serving with the greatest men who ever lived. He has never met people like them and never will. There is not a day that goes by that he does not think about the 505. He has seen a machine gunner in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] running with it with another man feeding it the ammunition. The men would come in an aid station and say to fix them up and send them back. Some they could not allow to go back, but they never thought of quitting. Whatever Gavin [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin] said or did penetrated. Gavin was a leader. It made a man out of Morgan and changed his whole life. If he had to do over again, he would. La Fière [Annotator's Note: La Fière bridge, near Sainte-Mere-Eglise (Sainte-Mère-Église), France, 9 June 1944] means to him that they had an objective to hold that bridge and they did that. That kept the Germans from getting to the men coming off of Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. It is indelible in his mind.