BY CLIFF SMELLEY
An airplane on the grounds of the Camp Blanding Museum and Memorial Park can no longer fly, but it looks as if it just rolled off the assembly line, thanks to Herb Sellers of Kingsley Lake and local painter Steve Rodriguez and his company, Steve’s Painting.
Sellers donated $9,000 to the Camp Blanding Museum to fund the restoration of a C-47 Skytrain. For him, it was much more personally than simply wanting to give new life to a piece of history. Sellers’ father, also named Herb, jumped from a C-47 during the Normandy invasion on D-day. He was a member of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
“He was only 19 years when he jumped out,” Sellers said of his father.
Sellers said his father, who passed away at the age of 71, didn’t think he’d even make it to the ground due to heavy enemy fire.
“They said you could walk on the tracers,” Sellers said. “Forty percent in his group that jumped out didn’t make it to the ground. They dropped them 5 miles off target.”
Sellers said his father was one of the people instrumental in obtaining the plane for Camp Blanding. It was carried in three pieces by helicopter from Alabama.
That was more than 30 years ago. Weather and time took their toll on the plane.
“This thing was a mess. A total mess,” Sellers said.
The job was like no other Rodriguez had worked in his 32 years as a painter.
“It was the neatest thing,” Rodriguez said, adding, “I enjoyed doing it.”
Rodriguez said he looked up planes from the World War II era on his phone in the attempt to get the color of paint just right. He and his crew also painted the stars and stripes on the plane’s body and wings.
“It turned out really great,” Rodriguez said.
Sellers’ friend and fellow Kingsley Lake resident Dub Murphree concurred.
“He actually painted the inside of the engines on the front to make them look like working engines,” Murphree said. “What a nice job he did there. It’s just really amazing.”
People viewing the plane used to be able to hear a recording made by Sellers’ father. The device that played the recording quit working, but plans are to repair it. Sellers again provided the necessary funds.
Sellers’ father made the recording at the age of 68. It begins with some facts about the plane itself: “This aircraft is the Douglas DC-3. The Army version is the C-47, and the Navy version is the R4D. In the Army, during World War II, it was used extensively for carrying cargo, passengers and in combat towing gliders, dropping paratroopers and for resupply. The 508th Parachute Regiment that trained at Camp Blanding was dropped in training and combat from the C-47.”
The recording then provides some details about the 508th, which was formed at Camp Blanding in October 1942. It went to Fort Benning, Georgia, for jump qualification, with Sellers’ father noting that 99 percent qualified.
The regiment moved to North Carolina and Tennessee before traveling to Camp Shanks, New York. It embarked from Staten Island on Dec. 28, 1943, aboard the James Parker transport ship. After a short stay in Northern Ireland, the 508th went to Nottingham, England, to prepare for the invasion of Normandy.
Sellers’ father states in the recording that the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment’s 14th jump was into Normandy “near the Merderet and Douve rivers, which were flooded over their banks by the Germans.” The recording goes on to note that the regiment’s 15th jump — also a combat jump — was into Holland and that the 508th “never failed to reach its objectives, nor gave any ground to the enemy.”
The regiment was committed to combat 18 months after its activation at Camp Blanding. It was committed to 180 of the 335 total combat days in Europe after the Normandy invasion
Eleven months after it was committed to combat, the war in Europe was over.
Sellers’ father then describes what the scene was like for paratroopers aboard a C-47 heading for Normandy’s Cotentin Peninsula. The only light that early morning came from tracers from the 100 or more machine guns on land. Flak bursts were everywhere. The plane, which is at about 450 feet, is slowing, pitching and yawing.
At about 450 feet, plane is slowing and pitching and yawing.
The recording recounts the jump master’s words: “Men, this is what we’ve trained for. I wish you all godspeed, and I’ll see you on the ground. Stand up and hook up. Sound off for equipment check.”
Following the equipment check, the jump master says, “Follow me. Diablo!”
“Diablo” was the battle cry for the 508th, which was nicknamed the “Red Devils.”
After playing the recording for a Telegraph-Times-Monitor journalist, Sellers, with tears in his eyes, said, “It still stirs my heart.”
“Can you imagine jumping out with 80 pounds of equipment on you in the darkness, and you’re only 450 feet above the ground? You’re hoping that parachute is going to open,” Sellers said.
With admiration in his voice, Rodriguez said, “I’ve got to give it to those guys for being so young at the time, so far away from home.”
Then, looking at the C-47 he and his crew worked on, Rodriguez added, “It’s pretty neat to know that’s what they jumped out of.”
Sellers is appreciative of Rodriguez’s efforts and thankful for Murphree being a “facilitator” in getting Rodriguez involved. Murphree knew Rodriguez, who had done some work for him.
The job on the plane isn’t completely done. Murphree said Camp Blanding has someone who will re-canvas the control surfaces — ailerons, elevators and rudder — which will then be painted by Rodriguez.
Then, Sellers’ main mission will be complete, but he’d love to see the C-47 project lead to other restoration projects on the memorial park, which also includes various World War II-era tanks, trucks and artillery weapons as well as monuments. Sellers said he plans to contact various veterans’ groups about possibly sponsoring such projects.
The Camp Blanding Museum and Memorial Park are located right inside Blanding’s main gate (5629 S.R. 16 West). The museum’s hours are noon-4 p.m. daily.
Admission to the museum is free, but donations are appreciated.
