Douglas Dillard was born in 1925 in Atlanta. Following in his father's footsteps, who served in North Africa early in the war, he joined the Army as a 16-year-old Airborne volunteer on July 3, 1942. His first deployment was to the Caribbean, in preparation for a possible assault on the island of Martinique, rumored as a potential base for German U-boats. In May 1944, after a return to the states for additional training, the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion was shipped to North Africa, Sicily and Italy in preparation for the Operation Dragoon landings on the Mediterranean coast of France. Serving as a radio operator, then-Sergeant Dillard followed his unit into the Bulge Dec. 21, 1944, attached to the 30th Infantry Division in support of their defense around Francorchamps and Stavelot. On Christmas Day, they shifted to the 82nd Airborne, supporting the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment with reconnaissance behind enemy lines. Experiencing heavy losses into 1945, the 551st eventually folded into the 508th. At war's end in May 1945, the Regiment moved to Frankfurt to guard Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters. Dillard earned the Bronze Star and later chose a career in military intelligence, serving in Korea and Vietnam. Eventually becoming Chief of U.S. Army Military Intelligence and earning a place in their Hall of Fame, he retired as a colonel in 1977. Successfully raising four daughters in the vicinity of his longtime residence in Bowie, Maryland, Dillard served as president of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge from 2012-2014. Find more on Douglas Dillard and my first time I met him by following the link below