Original Item: Only one available. "From this day to the ending of the World, ...we in it shall be remembered... we band of brothers" Henry V William Shakespeare.

This is a wonderful condition WW2 Ike jacket from an identified veteran of the legendary 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Band of Brothers). Staff Sergeant Bernard "Bernie" Negri was a member of the HQ 506th PIR WWII. He was born on 20 Aug 1919 and died on the 26 May 1999. His service and its personal impact is perhaps best summarized by his son Jason who wrote a letter to accompany this jacket, a copy of which will be included with purchase. It reads as follows:

SCREAMING EAGLE
On May 26th, 1999, another honored member of the 101st Airbome went to meet his maker. Bernard "Bernie" Negri, my father, died at age 79 after years of illness.
Born August 20, 1919, dad was the son of Italian immigrant parents. He grew up in Brooklyn, NY with his 4 brothers and 2 sisters. When World War 11 started, dad signed on to be a paratrooper. Many of those reading this can relate to his experiences in the war - dropping into Bastogne, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and liberating a prison camp. You all experienced something "over there" that people of my generation by and large can only begin to comprehend when we watch "Saving Private Ryan". A poor understanding to be sure.
My generation, incidentally, is dubbed "generation X" - because of our angst, and because we have been pegged as defying categorization. We are the ones who take peacetime for granted, who have received everything our boomer parents worked so hard for, and returned it as empty and unworthy of us. A generation that has never seen a wartime threat to our prosperity and has been spoiled by not having had to work for it. What I learned from my father is probably what saved me from this self-centeredness. I suppose this is my poor attempt to pay honor and respects to a man whose experiences I couldn't share.
Dad never talked much about his experience in the war, but some tales remain in my mind: being Col. Sink's bodyguard, going into Berchesgaarten, or careening down a steep hill in a US army truck that had no brakes. Unfortunately, these anecdotal tales are all I know of Dad's WWII experience. He kept most of his memories to himself. I know he killed enemy soldiers (he talked about it only once to me, and the memory obviously bothered him). I can't imagine how that must change a man, but he made a conscious effort to put it ail behind him. After the war, he started his own business in Farmingdale, NY, and eventually married a much younger woman and raised two sons. Never forgetting his 101st experience, but not dwelling on it either, he moved on in life. It was only in the three months prior to his death that he enrolled in the "Screaming Eagles".
My two oldest children have fond memories of "Grampy" and his Screaming Eagles cap that they loved to wear whenever we visited. Our photo albums are full of pictures of grampy on the floor playing with a grandchild or two. Mom said that it kept him young. Sadly, not young enough.
Having a father much older than everyone else's was difficult at times. As a child, I experienced occasional embarrassment because of it. I regret all of it now, as I begin to see more of the man who lived an entire lifetime before I entered the picture. His legacy of discipline, his sense of duty, and his example of courage are virtues that I can only hope and pray my three children will receive from the brief time they knew him. It falls to my brother and I to carry on these traits as best we can, even as we know we cannot measure up to our dad, the original G.I. Joe.
Go under the mercy, Dad. Until we meet again-
Jason Nagie

The Ike jacket is in excellent condition with the exception of a small hole near the left cuff and is a size 38R. Notable features are as follows:

- Sterling pin back jump wings
- CIB (Combat Infantryman Badge).
- 101st Airborne patch on right shoulder.
- Staff Sergeant chevrons on each sleeve.
- Ribbons and awards as follows:
- Four overseas service bars (on left sleeve cuff) 24+ months of combat service
•- Silver Star Medal Ribbon
- Bronze Star Medal Ribbon
•- Purple Heart Ribbon
- Sterling Expert Marksmanship 4 Bar Badge - Rifle, Carbine, Grenade
- Presidential Unit Citation

 Bernard Negri can be found on the "Currahee Last Role Call" page here.

The 506th PIR in WWII
The regiment was initially formed during World War II at Camp Toccoa, Georgia in 1942 where it earned its nickname, "Currahees", after Currahee Mountain which is located inside the boundaries of the camp. Paratroopers in training ran from Camp Toccoa up Currahee Mountain and back, memorialized in the HBO series, Band of Brothers, with the shout "three miles up, three miles down!". The Cherokee word, which translates to "Stand Alone", also became the unit's motto. Members of the unit also wear the spade (♠) symbol on the helmet outer and the Screaming Eagle patch (indicating membership of the 101st Airborne Division) on the left sleeve. During World War II, the only commanding officer of the regiment was Colonel Robert F. Sink. As such, the 506th was sometimes referred to as the "Five-Oh-Sink". On 10 June 1943, the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment officially became part of the 101st Airborne Division, commanded by Major General William Lee, the "father of the U.S. Army Airborne".

At the completion of their training at Camp Toccoa, Colonel Sink read an article in Reader's Digest about how a unit in the Japanese Army broke the world record for marching. Sink believed his men could do better than that, and as a result, the regiment marched 137 miles (220 km) from Camp Toccoa to Atlanta, where they then boarded trains to complete their transfer to Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia. This march was conducted over 75 hours and 15 minutes, with 33.5 hours being used for marching. Only 12 out of 556 enlisted men of the 2nd Battalion failed to complete the march. All 30 officers completed it, including the 2nd Battalion's commander, then-Major Robert Strayer. Newspapers covered the march and many civilians turned out to cheer the men as they neared Five Points.

The 506th would participate in three major battles during the war: D-day landings, Operation Market Garden, and the Battle of the Bulge. (They would have participated in Operation Varsity, which would have been three combat jumps, but SHAEF decided to use the 17th Airborne Division instead.)

D-Day: Operation Overlord
Like almost all paratroop units, the 506th was widely scattered during the Mission Albany night drop on the morning of D-Day. The most famous action for the 506th on D-Day was the Brécourt Manor Assault led by then 1st Lieutenant Richard Winters. Although promised they would be in battle for just 3 days, the 506th did not return to England for 33 days, participating in the battle for Carentan. Of about 2,000 men who jumped into France, 231 were killed in action, 183 were missing or POWs, and 569 were wounded — about 50% casualties for the Normandy campaign.

Operation Market Garden
The airborne component of Operation Market Garden, Operation Market was composed of American units (82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne Division, and the IX Troop Carrier Command), British units (1st Airborne Division) and Polish units (1st Independent Parachute Brigade). The airborne units were dropped near several key bridges along the axis of advance of the ground forces, Operation Garden, with the objective of capturing the bridges intact in order to allow a deep penetration into the German occupied Netherlands and to capture the key bridge crossing the River Rhine at Arnhem.

The 101st Airborne was assigned five bridges just north of the German defensive lines northwest of Eindhoven. The parachute drop was in daylight resulting in well targeted and controlled drops into the designated drop zones. The 101st captured all but one bridge, the one at Son which was destroyed with explosives by the German defenders as the airborne units approached the bridge. The ground forces of British XXX Corps linked up with elements of the 101st Airborne on the second day of operations but the advance of the ground forces was further delayed while engineers erected a Bailey Bridge at Son replacing the destroyed bridge. XXX Corps then continued its advance into the 82nd Airborne area of operations where it was halted just shy of Arnhem due to German counterattacks along the length of the deep penetration.

Battle of the Bulge
The 506th was directly involved in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 – January 1945. While resting and refitting in France after Operation Market Garden, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front, called upon the 101st Airborne Division on 16 December to be moved into the Belgian town of Bastogne by 18 December, so that the Germans would not gain access to its important crossroads. The short notice of a move left the unit short of food, ammunition, arms, men, and winter clothing. The unit, along with the rest of the 101st Airborne, was encircled immediately. The 506th was sent to the eastern section of the siege. During the siege, there were reports of problems with tying in the gap in between the 501st PIR and the 506th. To stall the Germans so that the defense could be set up, the 1st Battalion of the 506th (along with Team Desobry from the 10th Armored Division) was sent out to combat and slow down the Germans in the towns of Noville and Foy. One third (about 200 men) of the battalion was destroyed, but in the process had taken out 30 enemy tanks and inflicted 500–1000 casualties. The battalion was put into reserve and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were put on the lines. A supply drop on 22 December helped to some extent. After the U.S. Third Army, under General George Patton, broke the encirclement, the 506th stayed on the line and spearheaded the entire offensive by liberating Foy and Noville in January, until being transferred to Haguenau. They were pulled out of the line in late February 1945.

Rest of the war
The regiment was put back on the line on 2 April, and continued for the rest of the war, taking light casualties. It assisted in the encirclement of the Ruhr Pocket and the capture of Berchtesgaden, then took up occupational duties in Zell am See, Austria. The 506th then began training to be redeployed to the Pacific theater but the war ended in August 1945.