Posted by Dr. William Haugen Light on December 11, 2004:

Dear Mrs. Haugen/Harris, Thank you for your eulogy to my father, Col. Orin Doughty Haugen, who commanded the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment from its inception through the vicious fighting on Leyte and Luzon in the Philippine Islands during World War II. I had just turned seven years of age when my father died of his wounds received during the terrible fighting for Manila. He was shot in the chest by a Japanese 20-millimeter antiaircraft shell used in direct fire against the advancing troopers of the 511th PIR. He was hit on February 11, 1945 and died eleven days later on February 22nd. This was the day after his gallant troopers of the 1st Battalion, 511th, reinforced, staged the successful raid on the internment camp at Los Banos and rescued 2,147 allied civilian prisoners of the Japanese---the day they were scheduled for massacre by their guards. I remember Camp Mackall very well and I used to go out with my dad and run through the obstacle copurses with his young paratroopers. He is buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery outside San Francisco, California not far from Adm Chester Nimitz. My own Army service was during the Vietnam War some twenty years later. Again, thank you for your thoughtfulness. Bill Light (My mother later remarried and my last name was changed, to my everlastng dismay.)

admin