Sergeant First Class Patrick S. Macri

 Sergeant First Class Patrick S. Macri was initially selected for the Army's Specialized Training Program, ASTP. The program was designed to train and educate academically talented enlisted men at various Universities in order to build a specialized group of Army officers with needed technical specialties. Pat attended three universities before he was activated into the Signal Corps in 1943 and sent to Camp Crowder, Missouri for training. The ASTP would be further curtailed in 1944 by General Marshall, who was faced with a severe shortage of replacements for the Infantry Divisions and additional requirements for the pending Operation Overlord. The program was reduced to 30,000 men, releasing 120,000 for the Army. Arriving near Newberry, England before D-Day, Pat was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division's Signal Company as a Gliderman. Unlike the volunteer paratroopers, Glidermen were assigned and initially did not receive any special pay, uniforms, or wings. Pat would make the combat jumps into Normandy and Holland, survive the battle of Bastogne and serve with the 101st Airborne Division until the end of the war. Pat Macri is an active and valued member of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the 101st Association. His story is below...