Friday, October 27, 2006, dawned gray and wet…very wet! A steady rain had been falling throughout the early morning and showed no signs of letting up. The reunion attendees congregated in the hotel lobby, waiting for the word to load on to the buses.

           Easy Company Veterans and their wives wear their                                    "Wild Bill" Guarnere

                        distinctive yellow jackets

Three full buses headed out, the Easy vets distributed among all three. Due to the steady rain that obscured the countryside and the dim daylight that filtered through the rain clouds, there was as much napping as there was conversation…not exactly the weather conditions all were hoping for. In any event, the trip was made in less than two hours, and the group arrived at the Memorial to Camp Toccoa, located on Highway 123. The Memorial is on the corner of Highway 123 and Camp Drive, the original entrance to the Camp.

Those who didn't mind getting a little wet walked over to the Airborne Monument. A black marble marker commemorates the Camp as the training site for paratroopers: a large jump wing is engraved into the Monument stone above the Camp Toccoa engraving.

       
          Herb Suerth and Shifty Powers walk up to the Memorial                     Herb Suerth at the Memorial

George Luz, Jr. keeps the rain off of Jack Foley as              Easy Company Reenactors at the Memorial
                   Phil Perugini looks on

At the base of the marker, a parachute-shaped slab is laid out to the flag pole flying the National Colors. Along the edge of the canopy are four stone markers, one for each of the four Parachute Infantry Regiments that trained at Camp Toccoa.

 The call came out to load back on the buses, so the group set out on a brief road tour of the Camp site. After that it was off to the town of Toccoa.