Filthy Thirteen

[dorsai]

Nearly 65 years ago a group of 101st Airborne
troops made their final preperations. This is a
painting which captures that historic moment
in time.



This is a preview of a painting which will unveiled
during the upcoming Redding PA Air Show. After
the unveiling copies will be made available, some
of which will be signed by the four surviving men
featured in the scene. If anyone is interested in
more details about the unveiling, drop me a note.

[jlvfr]

Just a question that's bugging me: why "Filthy Thirteen"?

There are 17 people on the painting...

[dorsai]

Filthy Thirteen

Why seventeen,not thirteen?

Part of the answer is found in Jake's book, "The
Filthy Thirteen," the true story of the dirty dozen.

In the book Jake notes that Gen. Maxwell Taylor
wanted the 506th PIR to blow all the bridges below
the Douve Canal, then seize and hold onto the main
bridge. This was suppsoed to be a strictly 3rd Btn
mission, but Col. Sink was a little afraid that the guy
in charge of that group, a guy named Davidson,
wouldn't be able to get the job done so he asked
Jake to volunteer for it, which he did. Of course the
rest of Jake's group also volunteered as well, but that
still left him short of the number of men he felt he
needed, given he thought he'd probably loose half of
them in the jump. He asked for and got another squad
of demo men, which gave him twenty, counting Lt.
Mellen. So now that you know all that you still
probably want to know why there's 17 in the
picture and not twenty? My guess is this is a copy
of the paintiong before it was finished, but I'm not
really sure. I mention that only because when I spoke
to Jake's wife Martha yesterday (3/30/09), she noted
that they'd had to make some changes in it based on
what Jake had seen when they first presented him with
a copy.

If anyone is interested, I'll be happy to provide any
one who is interested with a link to some folks I know
who have agreed to help Jake sell his book. I note this
because Jake ends up making a heck of a lot more this
way than he'd make if you buy it through a local book
store or online from Amazon, etc. These folks are doing
this for free mainly because Jake and Martha don't own
a computer.

Sincerely,