Lt. Jack E. Foley

Mr. Foley grew up in Brookline with two brothers, the sons of a stay-at-home mother and a PPG salesman. After graduating from high school in 1940, he spent the next three years at the University of Pittsburgh, working toward a degree in political science and economics. But by 1943, he and a group of Army ROTC buddies decided they could wait no longer to get into the war and enlisted.

By November of that year, he was a lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps, guarding part of Puget Sound in Washington. He was later transferred to Texas and decided to become a paratrooper.

"I didn't want to go (to Europe) as a green second lieutenant. I wanted to do something special," he told the Post-Gazette in 2001, when he was honored at the Penn Hills Municipal Building. "The paratroopers were daring, unique. They were tough. They wore boots. That was where I wanted to be."

He completed paratrooper training in 1944 and shipped off to Holland as a replacement to Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

Mr. Foley, who was later wounded at Foy and at Haguenau near the German border, is featured briefly in the final four episodes of "Band of Brothers," played by British actor Jamie Bamber. His character is perhaps most visible in "The Breaking Point," where he and Sgt. John Martin lead soldiers around Foy after Lt. Norman Dyke freezes in terror behind a haystack.

I'll be going to Toccoa in October to attend the Currahee Military Weekend; I am praying to meet any of the surviving 506th PIR soldiers from WW2 and tell them how grateful I am of having met them... They are passing away and it will be up to us (the current generation fo soldiers) to carry on their legacy.

REST IN PEACE, SIR. YOU'VE EARNED YOUR WINGS - CURRAHEE!!!

that's terrible, I think bill guarnier(sp?) is still alive but there aren't too many left