Pleased with his regiment's superb actions during the Knollwood Maneuevers of December 1943, Colonel Orin D. "Hard Rock" Haugen distributed a holiday-period note to his men praising their work.
He noted, "It has been my idea from the start to make this unit the finest fighting unit in the Army. I feel that we have welded together a powerful fighting team of which we should all be proud."
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.
