Original Items: One-of-a-kind set. Sergeant Thomas R. Gilbert Jr. ASN 34771068 enlisted in the Army on March 27th, 1943. On October 23rd, 1943 he graduated the Sixty-Sixth Infantry Division Ranger School at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Arkansas. Following this he went to Parachute School (Class III) at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1944. After completion of Parachute training he was assigned to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and later the 507th PIR and sent to Europe to fight the Germans. The following items belonged to Sgt. Gilbert and are included in this grouping:

- Original Ranger Certificate of Proficiency named to Sgt. Thos. R. Gilbert. Jr. dated 23rd October 1943 at Camp Robinson.

- Original Class II Parachute School class photo with an identified photo of Sgt. Gilbert.

- Original Western Union telegram from Sgt. Gilbert to his father dated March 12th, 1944 that reads: DAD WILL GET MY WINGS TUESDAY STOP NEED MONEY TO DO A LITTLE CELEBRATING STOP PLEASE SEND TWENTY DOLLARS. LETTER FOLLOWING TOM.

- Original U.S. WWII Paratrooper American Flag Invasion Armband with Safety Pins

- Multiple Original WWII unattached patches (82nd AB, 17th AB, Para/glider and more).

- Original Medal ribbons and bar.

- Copy of June 22nd 1944 roster for the HQ company, 506th PIR naming Sgt. Gilbert with ASN.

- Copy of page 118 from the book Thunder From Heaven named Sgt. Gilbert and identifying him as a member of the 50th Parachute Infantry Regiment (most likely who he came home with).


Ranger training was still the ‘hottest thing’ in the Army despite LTG McNair’s reservations. It was an inexpensive way to build junior leaders—officers and NCOs. More astute division commanders saw value in continuing the training with their Second Army Ranger graduates, some of whom were Pacific combat veterans. The simplicity of individual field training made it readily exportable. And, most Army training camps contained homemade ‘German villages’ to practice street fighting. The 66th ID, one of four divisions at Camp Blanding, Florida, ‘picked up the Ranger gauntlet.’


Major General (MG) H.T. Kramer, commanding general, directed that a 66th ID Ranger course be conducted. The ‘Black Panther’ Division was activated at Camp Blanding, Florida, on 15 April 1943 with a cadre of officers and sergeants from the 89th ID. MG Kramer needed highly motivated, tough junior leaders to move collective training through the echelons as the division prepared for AGF-adminstered combat ready evaluations before the middle Tennessee maneuvers. He had to phase the 262nd, 263rd, and 264th Infantry Regiments, the 870th, 871st, and 872nd light artillery battalions (105mm), and the 721st medium artillery battalion (155mm) from individual basic training to unit collective training. Physical conditioning was started at once.

After newly assigned recruits completed basic training in their battalions in May 1943, the 66th ID regiments intensified their physical fitness programs. They were getting the soldiers ready for unit training that progressed from section/platoon to battery/company to battalion level before the beginning of regimental maneuvers. Reveille formation at 0500 hours morphed into company and battery calisthenics across the division. Repetitions for the exercises increased daily until a standard of twelve sets was achieved.

These ‘warm-up’ sessions preceded four-man telephone pole lifts and overhead carry races. Hand-to-hand combat fighting culminated morning physical training (PT). Soldiers climbed into large ‘bear pits’ for a series of combative drills. These evolved into ‘King of the Mountain’ rough and tumble fighting competitions that left one man standing. Then, company and battery ‘kings’ fought free-for-all style to determine a battalion champion.
At this point cannoneer Private (PVT) Paul E. Spears will explain the 66th ID ‘Ranger’ program.

“I was a tough, smart-ass jock who had just spent six months on the Lake Erie Railroad driving spikes into creosoted rail ties with a twelve-pound maul. Rail crews were a very rough lot,” said PVT Spears, an M101 howitzer gunner in B Battery, 872nd Field Artillery. “Private Harry E. Ohota, a singing Ukrainian from Monessen ‘Steeltown’ (PA), and I were consistently the last guys standing. He was solid as an oak and stronger than a bull. Though I was quicker, try as I might, I could never overcome his brute strength. Harry was always the battery ‘pit king,’”

Bayonet training often ended with a spate of hand-to-hand combat. Since padded pugil sticks and boxing helmets were safety features in the future, sheathed bayonets on rifles raised unarmed combatives to a much more physical level. “A parried bayonet attack, followed by an instinctive vigorously delivered butt stroke to an opponent’s steel helmet often led to free-for-alls,” said Spears. “This was common because our natural aggressiveness was being honed to win in combat. Little did I know that my physical prowess would get me ‘volunteered’ for Ranger training.”

By July 1943, two hundred and twenty enlisted soldiers deemed by their battalions to possess leadership potential reported for two weeks of Ranger training. Three Pacific combat veterans, a first (1LT) and two second lieutenants (2LT), all Second Army Ranger graduates, conducted the 66th ID program.
“1LT Schaefer (W.A., III) told us that we had been specially selected to fight behind enemy lines. He promised to physically push us to our last ounce of strength and then demand more. We double-timed everywhere in our steel pots carrying our weapons with unsheathed bayonets,” remembered Spears.

“We started our first night patrol crossing a triple roll of concertina wire. The scouts covered the flanks as the first two men flung themselves onto the barbed wired rolls and we scrambled over on their backs. The last two helped the ‘bridge men’ untangle themselves before running to catch up,” recalled Spears. “It seemed that all patrols were through swamps. We lived by compasses and map reading. To insure that everyone (non-swimmers) got across deep streams we formed human chains. There were four things out there in the night — bugs, snakes, alligators, and Rangers,” chuckled the artillery private. “Every day, guys dropped out. A German POW embarrassed us in our initial bayonet drills, but we learned quick. We would disassemble and assemble the .45 pistol, the M-1 Garand and M-1903 Springfield rifles, the M-1 Carbine, and water-cooled .30 and .50 caliber machineguns until we could do them blindfolded.”

“By the last day, we were down to 120 stalwarts for whom quitting was not an option. LT Schaefer worked us unmercifully into the afternoon. Then, we formed up, went to ‘Port Arms’ with our bayonet-mounted weapons and double-timed to the obstacle course six miles away. There we were split into two ranks, faced one another, and fought until one was standing. Winners kept fighting until there was one ‘champion.’ I made it to the next to last round when I was pitted against a guy, six feet four inches tall, weighing 250 pounds. He was muscled like a lumberjack. I toppled him with a behind the knee kick and pounced on him. He flipped me off like a bug and proceeded to smother me. I was still trying to get my breath when the lieutenant blew his whistle to start the obstacle course. Yes, we double-timed back for supper,” said the cannoneer private. There was more to come.

“After chow we were told to assemble at midnight in full combat gear and steel pots, carrying weapons with bayonets mounted, full field packs, and one canteen of water. We were force marching twenty-five miles and would be back by daybreak. No one could drink water unless given permission by cadre. We did it in 5 hours and 20 minutes and nobody quit. They would have died first. As we approached the Camp Blanding parade ground, you could hear a band playing. We soon discovered that the 66th Division was formed and standing at attention. Dead tired, soaked with sweat, our backs straightened as LT Schaefer marched us to the front of the reviewing stand. He stepped forward and saluting MG Kramer, presented the 66th Infantry Division ‘Rangers’ to him,” recalled a beaming Spears.

“General Kramer expressed his pride in us and our accomplishments. Then, he walked out gave each one of us a certificate, and shook our hands. I was standing ‘ten feet tall’ when the division marched by in review. Afterwards, LT Schaefer congratulated all of us for exceeding his standards. He said that he would proudly serve with any of us, anywhere. The truth be known, we would have followed that Guadalcanal veteran anywhere,” reflected Spears, almost seventy years later.
But, instead of imbuing ‘Rangerism’ in the 672nd Field Artillery, newly-promoted CPL Paul Spears was sent off to Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Fort Benning, Georgia.

The 66th was not the only infantry division to institute ‘Ranger’ training. The outstanding 83rd ID course at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, resulted in its director being chosen to command the 2nd Ranger Battalion at Camp Forrest. Major General (MG) Lloyd R. Fredendall, who succeeded LTG Lear in April 1943, had been very favorably impressed by the successes of the 1st Ranger Battalion in North Africa. When he left Camp Atterbury, the Second Army commander believed that the former Texas A&M football player and coach, Major (MAJ) James Earl Rudder, knew how to train soldiers for combat. The 83th ID commander, MG Frank W. Milburn, a West Point footballer (Class of ‘14), agreed.

Other Ranger programs were quite noteworthy. The Army Ranger Combat Training School at Fort William R. Shafter, Territory of Hawaii, directed by LTC Francois d’Eliscu, inculcated the ‘spirit of Rangerism’ in junior officer and NCO infantry leaders of the Army divisions slated for the Pacific. Technician Fifth Grade (T/5) Roger L. Reid, Service Company, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th ID, was rated as a ‘Very Satisfactory’ graduate of the eight-week Hawaiian course. MG Walter M. Robertson, 2nd Infantry Division, followed four months of winter warfare at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, with a Ranger Battle Training Course from 12 April to 5 June 1943. Graduates like 1LT Larry C. Lomax, 9th Infantry Regiment, had black circular ‘skull’ patches made to wear above the right sleeve cuff of their dress uniforms. A 75th ID three-week Ranger program was conducted at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, by LT Robert Belior. Against long odds LTG Ben Lear succeeded in preparing Second Army and AGF infantry division soldiers to fight and defeat battle-hardened enemy forces by instilling the ‘spirit of Rangerism.’ Despite their wartime successes, however, the scouts, raiders, and rangers faded away at the end of World War II.