Currahee Mountain & Military Museum (GA)
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Toccoa, GA Train Depot (Currahee Military Museum)
Built in 1915, the train depot at Toccoa was where the paratroopers training began. Some of the lucky volunteers, after a long ride, got an immediate taste of things to come as they were instructed to grab their gear and proceed to march the five miles to camp. The old depot now houses the county and military museums...
Entering the museum display area...
One of the first displays you pass is a 'Band of Brothers' movie poster. The signatures were added by the veterans, above the actors who portray them in the film...
Flash photography was prohibited in the museum so I was a bit limited as to the pictures I could take. Here you can see a mannequin dressed up in period paratroop garb. The case in front of him contains an original Camp Toccoa training T-shirt...
This simple, sobering, display is dedicated to the men of Camp Toccoa who lost their lives in the war...
The centerpiece of the museum is the Aldbourne Stable. Rediscovered on a farm in western England, the stable was deconstructed, transported, and then reassembled here in 2005. It has been confirmed that a number of paratroopers from Toccoa were actually housed in this building during the war. Most notably were David Webster and Denver "Bull" Randleman of Band of Brothers fame...
One of the rooms in the stable has been decorated to appear as it did during the war...
There was even this old foot locker with period items stored in it which, I thought, was a nice touch...
Each of the other rooms is dedicated one of the Camp Toccoa regiments and contains numerous mementos from before, during, and after the war. This one, as you may have noticed, is the 506th PIR room...
Currahee Mountain as viewed on my approach from the east. The name Currahee is a Cherokee word meaning 'stand alone'. This is appropriate as the peak sits rather conspicuously detached from the neighboring ridges to the north. During the war the paratroop trainees adopted the mountains name as their motto, along with the phrase "3 Miles Up, 3 Miles Down" in reference to the training runs they were required to do on it slopes. I was quite excited to have this opportunity to walk in their footsteps...
Before heading up the mountain I stopped to pay my respects at the Camp Toccoa Airborne memorial which is just a short distance up the road from the trailhead. The simple memorial was dedicated by the remaining survivors of the camp in 1990. The simple marble monument in front details the cost each regiment paid in the war while the memorial walk beyond, in the shape of a deployed parachute, contains monuments to each individual regiment...
The price paid by the men of Toccoa... The inscription reads: In honor of those who trained here 506th PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT 501st PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT 511th PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT 517th PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT 457th PARACHUTE FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION 506th - KIA: 509 MIA: 305 WOUNDED: 1735 501st - KIA: 517 MIA: 328 WOUNDED: 1639 511th - KIA: 211 MIA: 10 WOUNDED: 960 517th - KIA: 217 MIA: --- WOUNDED: 1178