FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   SEPTEMBER 2, 2003

Contact Patrick Tremblay, ptremblay@asomf.org (910) 483-3003 ext. 229

THUNDER FROM HEAVEN
After 58 Years, the 17th Airborne Division Returns to Fayetteville

FAYETTEVILLE, NC. The Airborne & Special Operations Museum (ASOM) will open a new special exhibit on Tuesday, September 9 at 10 am. The new exhibit, Thunder from Heaven, follows the 17th Airborne Division from its activation at Camp Mackall, NC to its historic airborne assault into Germany in 1945 and subsequent deactivation. The exhibit will be on display during regular museum hours through January 25, and is sponsored in part by the Talking Phone Book.

The exhibit comes as the 17th Airborne Association holds its annual reunion for the first time in Fayetteville. The division was activated at nearby Camp Mackall on April 15, 1943, and trained at the camp and Ft. Bragg before being sent to Europe. In 1945 it was hand picked to spearhead Operation Varsity, a major parachute and glider assault across the Rhine River into Germany. On March 24 nearly 4,000 aircraft from the 17th and a British airborne division departed France in the last full-scale airborne drop of the war.

Germany surrendered shortly after the assault, and in September of 1945 the 17th Airborne Division returned home and was disbanded. This reunion is the first time the veterans of the 17th have returned to Fayetteville since their triumphant homecoming of 1945. The exhibit will honor this return, and will focus heavily on the role gliders played in the Varsity operation as a tribute to the National WWII Glider Pilots Association, which will be holding its reunion in Fayetteville this fall.

Exhibit hours: 10am – 5 pm, Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon – 5 pm Sundays. Closed Monday; open Federal holiday Mondays. Admission is free.

ON THE WEB: www.asomf.org

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