At the beginning of December, the 506th moves towards Fort Benning, Salvatore and its first battalion will join this camp by train while the second battalion will do it on foot for nearly 190kms;  Colonel Sink, commander of the regiment wishing to break the world record of a Japanese battalion that had walked more than 150kms in three days.

The men of the battalion will march 190kms in three days !

In Fort Benning the training program is planned over 4 weeks to reach the end of being patented parachutist. But the 506th will not perform the first week, the regiment having done this part of physical preparation in Toccoa.

The men are in excellent physical condition and are already ready for the following phases: parachutes folding, suspended harness training, Model aircraft jumps or small towers 10 meters high are on the program for the second week.

Then come the jumps from the famous frying pans of Fort Benning, 80m high towers for the third week. Finally the last week they have to do all five jumps from a C-47.
After Christmas 1942, the regiment was patented. The men left on leave for 10 days.

On their return at the beginning of January 1944 a new phase of training begins until March on the fights in urban area, then the jumps come to complete this preparation.
In March it is the start for Camp Mackall where training intensifies with phases of jumps in full and armed package followed by three days of fighting in hostile environments.

On June 10 the 506th is attached to the 101st Airborne Division. In early July, the 506th is at the heart of the largest airborne exercise ever held in Kentucky an Tennessee.

At the beginning of September, Salvatore and his brothers-in-arms boarded the SS Samaria for the crossing of the Atlantic; they docked in Liverpool on 15 september 1943. Trains will take the men south of Hungerford in Witlshire and then are assigned to their various quarters.

 For Salvatore and his company, it will be Ramsbury.

A rigorous training regime will begin in the camps and surroundings of the English countryside, complete with jumps and forced steps.

At the end of March 1944, the units participated in Exercise Beaver and at the end of April in Exercise Tiger.

At the end of May, Salvatore is preparing its package, the order has arrived to embark towards the airfields.

This famous day, so long awaited since his arrival with the paratroopers, is approaching the training at his home in America and here in England, all these efforts to finally experience what he came for.
Salvatore arrived at Upottery Airfield in Devon where the 439th Troop Carrier Group of 91st TCS was stationed.

Salvatore and his brothers-in-arms settled in canvas camps or buildings.
On June 3, paratroopers were notified of the departure date, but the bad weather pushed it back 24 hours.

23h13, the C-47s leave Upottery for Normandy and DZ C in Hiesville.

For Salvatore and his comrades, the missions are to capture exits 1 and 2 in Poupeville and Houdienville.

Coming out of the cloud bank southeast of Saint-Sauveur-Le-Vicomte, the C-47 was caught again by fire; the plane was hit, then caught fire, it turned and plunged to the ground, it crashed on the eights of Picauville instead « La Maison de Haut ». There are no survivors of this tragic fate of C-47 42-100819.

Crew of Douglas C-47 - type A - s/n 42-100819 L4*O Chalk #32

Passengers of the Douglas C-47