The Eagles Scream

The Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division screamed loud last week. They had been given all credit for their indomitable, week-long stand in Bastogne, but now they began to hear it said that they had been "rescued." To the airtroopers, professional tough men, this was a fighting word. Said their deputy commander, Brigadier General Anthony Clement McAuliffe, author of the now-famed reply "Nuts", who had been in charge during the siege: "We resent any implication we were rescued or needed rescue. The whole thing was just our dish. . . . When we were left during the corps' withdrawal, our commander told us not to get ourselves surrounded. That's a laugh."

To show how cocky were his "battered bastards of the bastion of Bastogne," the slight, weather-beaten general told a story: two of the men had visited Napoleon's tomb in Paris. One said: "The greatest soldier that ever lived is buried there." The second Eagle retorted: "Aw, when did he ever jump?"

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