Fayetteville Man to Return to Belgium for Battle of Bulge Anniversary-- Part 1: Parachute Gifts

From the March 26, 2014, Goldsboro (NC) News-Argus "Fayetteville man to return to Belgium to recall WWII jump" by AP.

Everett"Red"  Andrews has perhaps the last parachute used at Bastogne,  "They filtered through the last wisps of lingering fog, brightly colored early Christmas packages in the middle of smoke and flames of hell.  First Lt. Everett "Red" Andrews was among the young men ordered to scramble over hard-frozen fields to gather the gifts sent to keep them alive and fighting."

This December Andrews plans to return to Bastogne on the anniversary of that Christmas drop which helped save the famed 101st Airborne Division which was completely surrounded by Germans during their Battle of the Bulge attack.  Even more important , he will be bringing with him one of the last surviving working-shape  parachutes from that drop.

Everett Andrews, 93, says he won't be jumping out of any planes, however.  But, he was a young soldier from Kankakee, Illinois, with a shock of red hair which gave him his nickname.  In mid-December 1944, his artillery unit  was ordered to take up a position just north of a Belgium town named Bastogne and he found himself in one of the biggest and most desperate battles of the war.

Reliving the Past.  --GreGen