Born on March 28, 1922, second World War veteran Ernie Lamson couldn't take part in the invasion because of injuries he received on a training jump at Fort Benning, North Carolina in 1942, but he never misses the chance to return to Europe to remember his 508th buddies.

Ernie told:
"I enlisted in the 508th in October 1942 but I was injured in a parachute jump and spent seven months in the hospital. When they picked me up to put me in the meat wagon [ambulance] a handle on the stretcher broke and dumped me on the ground. I punctured a lung and I was put in an oxygen tent with a full body cast – they even talked about taking my leg, but I was transferred to another hospital and the doc there wanted to put a plate in but couldn't operate because of the lung problem, so they put me in traction. It [my leg] ended up a little shorter but does not cause me too much of a problem.
"I was transferred back to Fort Benning and then in 1945 sent to Korea for a short time in military government. I was discharged in 1946.
"I hooked up with the 508 at a reunion in Omaha, Nebraska in 1984 and served as the president and treasurer for several years – I was also chairman for several reunions and made another parachute jump on my 90th birthday."