This photo was taken at the time of 1LT Andrew Carrico's wedding. "Andy" is pictured on the far right, while 2LT Leo E. Crawford of HQ2-511 is on the far left. 2LT Robert Buckalt (HQ2) is in the middle.
On September 4, Andy had tied the knot with his beloved Lois Lilly, a painter he actually met on a blind date. The wedding was a small but beautiful ceremony held in Bennettsville, South Carolina. My grandfather (Andy) was given several days leave for the honeymoon and he and Lois had a wonderful time at Cheraw Lake (now Lake Juniper) where Lois playfully dubbed Andy “Senator Carrico” due to his clean-cut appearance, dashing uniform and aviator sunglasses.
Prior to the wedding, Grandpa’s mother Esther, Sr., his sister Esther, Jr., and his grandmother all took the train down from Washington, D.C. and by happenstance met Lois onboard and instantly fell in love with her.
The boys of the 511th PIR enjoyed Camp Mackall's superior facilities when not out on several-day bivouacs or long marches. Out of 12,000 volunteers, only 2,176 remained, having passed (i.e. survived) Colonel Orin Haugen's strict acceptance guidelines. At Mackall the soldiers practiced field problems and got to know the other units in their mother organization, the 11th Airborne Division under Major-General Joseph May Swing.
