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A little over a week before the D-Day invasion was to begin, Captain Robert Dickson was reassigned from his long time position as commanding officer of E Company, 502nd PIR and given the job of Regimental Intelligence Officer.  With his new position, Captain Dickson was provided with a two-man security detail from the S-2 section, and a special assignment for the early part of the D-Day invasion.  Captain Dickson and his security detail, James C. Clark and Jack G. Ott, would first be sent to North Witham Airfield where they would be attached to Captain Frank Lillyman's 502nd PIR Pathfinders. 

The pathfinders were a small, specially trained group of paratroopers who would drop into Normandy 30 minutes ahead of the first planes of the invasion fleet.  Once on the ground, it was their objective to mark the drop zones for the thousands of paratroopers arriving behind them in the armada of C-47 transport planes.  Marking of the dropzones would be done by using special lights and transmitter beacons.  It would be a very dangerous job for a small group to drop in behind the enemy lines without the immediate support of the remainder of their division, but it had to be done, and Captain Dickson and his team would join them.

As part of their special mission, Captain Dickson and his security team were to drop in with the men of the very first plane of the invasion, and to then break off on their own after landing.  At that point they would follow their top secret maps and reconoiter a couple specially selected objectives and report their findings back to the division command.

Captain Dickson was not fully briefed on his assignment until after his arrival at North Witham Field.  For security purposes, all but a few high-ranking personnel who had been briefed on the invasion and it's objectives, were locked in special "marshalling areas" until the invasion actually began.  For Captain Dickson and his security team, their marshalling area would be a section of North Witham Airfield along with Captain Lillyman and his 502nd Pathfinder Team.

A few days later, Captain Dickson's former command, E Company 502nd PIR was also moved to their "marshalling area", but it was about 90 miles southwest at the Greenham Common Airfield.  Captain Dickson would not see the men of his former company again until after landing in Normandy.  He would also miss quite the photo opportunity by not being with his company at Greenham Common.

While detained in the marshalling area, Captain Lillyman briefed his team of pathfinders on their mission, discussing all the details and any concerns his men had.  Sandtables were also used as visual aides to help the paratroopers become familiar with the area of their objective.  Over the few days before the invasion they would study the three dimensional displays and memorize the terrain and landmarks.  Although they had a seperate mission of their own, Captain Dickson and his team participated in some of the briefings.

The start of the invasion would finally come on June 4th, 1944, but unfortunately it was a false start.  Due to extremely poor weather conditions, General Eisenhower and his staff at SHAEF decided it was best to postpone the invastion.  Fortunately that postponement would only be 24 hours as the stormfront began to clear the following day.  Approximately two years of training, and a weeks worth of briefings were about to finally pay off.  The invasion would begin on the evening of June 5th in England, but since that country was on double-daylight savings time during the war, it would actually be the morning of June 6th in Normandy when the paratroopers would arrive.

After making the decision to allow the invasion to go forward, General Dwight D. Eisenhower decided he wanted to visit some of his paratroopers and wish them well.  The place "Ike" chose to visit was Greenham Common, and the unit he chatted with while he was there was the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Several of the men from Captain Dickson's former company E/502 forever found their place in the history books as a result of the pictures and film footage that were taken during that visit, especially men like Lt. Wallace Strobel, one of Captain Dickson's platoon leaders, who was in one of the most famous photos of the war.

Back at North Witham Airfield there was no visit for the pathfinders from dignitaries or the US Army Signal Corps photographers, but their actions later that evening would be just as important.

The paratroopers made last minute checks of the long list of gear they all carried, wrote notes to loved ones at home, firmed up insurance policies, and had a large meal to celebrate what they were about to do.  Some units, like the pathfinders, even made time to take group photos in front of their planes before embarking.

The 45 minute flight over the English Channel for plane #1 was completely uneventful.  The Germans knew an invasion was coming soon, but they did not know exactly when or where, and they especially did not expect it on the night of June 5th due to the recent bad weather in the region.  Captain Lillyman's plane was also very fortunate not to be shot at by the many German anti-aircraft emplacements along the Normandy coast as they headed towards their objective.  Unlike the last planes of the invasion who would feel the full wrath of an alert enemy, the first plane enjoyed the safety of the element of surprise.  

But even with the skys being comparatively calm, as opposed to the chaos there would be later when the full fleet of troop carriers were targeted by anti-aircraft guns while dropping their cargo of fighting men, something still went wrong. Once over their objective, the jump light went on inside the plane and the men went out the door with their parachutes billowing open behind them.  But once on the ground, the pathfinders of plane #1 found themselves far from their objective, Drop Zone "A" near St. Germain de Varreville.  They quickly made their way towards the area of the drop zone, but with only 30 minutes before the first wave of planes would arrive, there just wasn't enough time.

To Be Continued...