Typed letter. Samuel Rowland to "Uncle Shep." 1944 July 5.

In the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, troopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne and the 505th Parachute Infantry parachuted behind enemy lines in Normandy, seized the La Fiere bridge and liberated the town of St. Mere Eglise. The 82nd Airborne, under the command of Colonel James Gavin, next turned west to capture St.-Sauveur-le-Vicomte and then drove south towards La Haye du Puits in thirty-three days of continuous fighting without relief or replacements. By the time the division was relieved on July 8 it had suffered a 57% casualty rate.

Among those troopers was alumnus Samuel Rowland. In a letter to his uncle, he comments on his landing in a swamp, the ruthlessness of the Germans who bayoneted unfortunate troopers tangled in their "chutes," close calls from shells landing near his foxholes, cooperation of the liberated French civilians, and taking out a camouflaged German machine gun nest, ending, "I've seen men, our men, drop around me. I've seen my friends go down; but I've seen more Hynies go down, and if they must be killed, thank God I'm able to kill them."