WW II-11th Airborne TB

Please drop this item in rural or Premium Member Only caches.  Do not drop it in an urban cache or leave it behind at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; this prevents the chain and tag tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take this travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission needed to leave the U.S.

Replica Shoulder Patch. This patch was purchased at the Silent Wings Museum, Lubbock, TX.  The museum preserves and promotes the history of the World War II military glider program.  The gift shop sell replica shoulder patches of military units supervising or glider in their missions.  The museum is located on the site of the World War II South Plains Army Air Field, where about 80% of the glider pilots were trained between 1942 and 1945.  Among many exhibits, the museum houses a faithfully restored example of the nearly the nearly 15,000 WACO CG-4A gliders built during the war effort.
 
The 11th Airborne Division was first activated on 25 February 1943, during World War II.  It consisted of one parachute and two glider infantry regiments, with supporting troops.  Held in reserve in the United States for the first half of 1944, in June the division was transferred to the Pacific Theater of Operations.
 
The 11th Airborne saw its first action on the island of Leyte in the Philippines, but in a traditional infantry role.  In January 1945 the division took part in the invasion of Luzon. The two glider infantry regiments again operated as conventional infantry, securing a beachhead before fighting their way inland.  The parachute infantry regiment was held in reserve for several days before conducting the division's first airborne operation, a combat drop on the Tagatay Ridge.  Reunited, the division participated in the Liberation of Manila, and two companies of divisional paratroopers conducted an audacious raid on the Los Baños internment camp, liberating two thousand civilians.
 
On 30 August 1945 the division was sent to southern Japan as part of the occupation force. Four years later it was recalled to the United States, where it became a training formation. One glider infantry regiment was detached for service in the Korean War, but on 30 June 1958 the division was inactivated.