I’ve always loved Band of Brothers (book and series) and have been wanting to run Currahee. The weather is perfect so I decided to take the 3 hour ride from Charlotte NC to Taccoa GA. I made it through running the whole Thing but the last 3/4’s of a mile were rough. The incline is much steeper than the rest. It’s a gravel/dirt road you are running on so you can travel up to the peak by vehicle. Speaking of the peak it’s now taken up by cell towers so just before the top there are some large rocks that serve as the best spot to look down on Taccoa and the Blue Ridge mountains in the distance. Lots of graffiti and trash up there which is a real shame.

Currahee Mountain as you drive up.



Where you park if you are planning to hike/run Col. Robert Sink trail.




Hi-ho silver! This is the steepest point...the turn after the switchback right before the top.



The view.





Shameless selfie.



Camp Taccoa.




The Camp Taccoa memorial across from the actual camp. The blue/white paint on the ground is painted in the shape of a parachute canopy.



Turns out this weekend is the Currahee Military weekend with events every day. Tomorrow I will go heck out the Currahee Militay Museum before I leave town. Will post more pics then.

**UPDATE**

Yesterday I went to the Currahee Military Museum. Taccoa is hosting a military weekend with different festivities every day. At the museum I was struck by how many French people were there. I saw at least 5-6 different people walking around speaking French with airborne T-shirt’s and such.

Camp Toccoa



506











A copy of the original NUTS letter



A wedding dress made from parachute silk during rationing



The actual stables the 506 stayed in while in England were dismantled and shipped to the US where they were rebuilt here




Arms, uniforms, etc...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dusty78,

Very cool to see your pictures. Interesting to see what the site looks like today. Thanks for posting!

In the last pic, was the marble broken and then repaired like that?

Great photos, and beautiful scenery!


[Nitpick]
The partial trooper in the monument is carrying a postwar M1 Carbine. M1 Carbine barrel bands with the bayonet lug weren't available until the last few months of WW2. Carbines with bayonet lugs saw extremely limited use in the PTO at the very tail end of the war, but saw no use in the ETO before the war ended. No paratroopers used that style carbine with bayonet lug during the war, although most M1 Carbines were retrofitted with those after WW2.



Early War M1 Carbine
Late War M1 Carbine
Extremely Late/Postwar M1 Carbine

With the exception of the early Airborne missions in North Africa, most (though not all) paratroopers in WW2 would have been using the folding stock M1A1 Carbine anyway, and none of those were produced with bayonet lugs.


[/Nitpick]

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
In the last pic, was the marble broken and then repaired like that?

It didn’t look broken. When you stand in front of it, it looks like you are looking up at a parachute canopy and see the boots won’t eh bloused pants legs like a trooper is parachuting down on you (sort of)....maybe it was done for effect. In the series they made a big deal about the airborne blousing their pant legs so maybe that has something to do with it.

Dusty,

Thank you for this post. It looks like it was an amazing experience. We had wanted to do this run as a class during OCS back in 2009 but the logistics didn't work out for some reason.

That's cool, I was in Currahee (2-506) for my second deployment to Iraq in 2005. The guys in my unit had a get together in 2015 there but I wasn't able to get away from the captain's career course to attend.

Cool.

Sucks about the graffiti.

Museum pics added

Benn up there a few times. Was married in a church in the shadow of the mountain in my first marriage. Did you find the marker? Marker looks different than in the series. I'm not in the shape anymore to run that hill so I drove it.

Very nice photos. Thank you for posting them.

Thank you for posting this!

My wife and I run a Cowboy Action club in Toccoa at the Georgia Mountain Shooting Range (GMSA). http://www.trailquest.net/PRindex.html

Next match November 11. Come and check out a match and then check out the museum and Currahee Mountain.

I guess I need to check it out since I live within an hour of there.

Wonderful pictures. Thanks. I would love to visit the museum. The World War II museum in New Orleans is superb. Still on Lee Circle without Robert E. Lee statue. They built it at the site they manufactured the Higgins boats used in the D DAY invasion. Lots of great memorabilia.

My father fought in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. Not a member of an elite unit, but saw plenty of action. Glad to hear people are still interested. Stephen Ambrose had a home here in Bay Saint Louis Mississippi. If I remember correctly, he had a lot to do with the Band of Brothers series.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo Jones:
Thank you for posting this!

Yes, thank you Dusty78.

Sincere thanks for posting, I did not know of the base. The members of Sig Forum always enlighten me.

Just curious, wonder what is the elevation is on the mountain where the cell towers are?

I think it was 1700ft about sea level.