Combat Team

by Col. Rupert D. Graves

This three-part serial ran in the popular Blue Book Magazine* on December 1947, January 1948, and February 1948. This was the first account of the 517 to appear in a nationwide publication. For many years, people have confused the 517 Parachute Combat Team booklet, published at the war's end, with these Blue Book magazine articles.  Thanks to Heather Riley, daughter of Ian Cowan (B Co.), we now have found copies of the original Blue Book magazines, reproduced here.  It turns out that these are not the same as the unit history as recounted in 517 PRCT booklet.  They are unique stories written for the magazine.  Thanks to Heather Riley and Justin Riley who photographed the original copies.  More recently, Steve Gomez was able to do a great job of re-scanning the entire set of these great of these articles.  I have published them mid-size jpg format to read a page at a time.  For higher quality and to be able to zoom in and print the entire articles, use the pdf formats.

Part 1 - December 1947 Full Article in PDF format single page jpgs: Col. Graves intro Cover Pg 52 Pg 53 Pg 54 Pg 55 Pg 56 Pg 57 Pg 58 Pg 59 Pg 60

Part 2 - January 1948 Full Article in PDF format single page jpgs: Cover Pg 58 Pg 59 Pg 60 Pg 61 Pg 62 Pg 63 Pg 64 Pg 65

Part 3 - February 1948 Full Article in PDF format "With the savage Battle of the Bulge, the combat story of the 517th Airborne Regiment comes to its conclusion." single page jpgs: Cover Pg 66 Pg 67 Pg 68 Pg 69 Pg 70 Pg 71 Pg 72 Pg 73 Pg 74

Southern France Landing When I scanned the "Combat Team" article I also did another in the December issue called "Southern France Landing". Although not specifically about the 517th there is a mention of Col Graves in the inset.  I almost forgot about it and just stumbled across it on my laptop.  -- Steve Gomez Pg 61 Pg 62 Pg 63 Pg 64 Pg 65