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Alley, James (1922 - 2008); Alley was one of the 140 original Toccoa men of Easy Company. Alley made his first combat jump on D-Day into Normandy. He had to be thrown out the door by comrade Paul Rogers because he had difficulties getting out and was about to be pulled in half by his leg bag he thrown out the door. Alley landed near Ste. Mere-Eglise and crashed into a wall behind a house, cut by the broken glasses embedded in the top of the wall. He later found Rogers and Earl McClung and the three fought with the soldiers from the 505th Regiment until reunited with Easy Company. Alley participated in Operation Market Garden and fought defending The Island. On 5 October 1944, Alley was chosen for a patrol mission led by Sergeant Art Youman with Joseph Lesniewski, Joseph Liebgott and Roderick Strohl. When the patrol ran into a larger German patrol, a German soldier threw a grenade at the men. Lesniewski called out a warning and Alley turned his body from the blast just in time; still, Alley was blown to the ground and received 32 wounds in his body. Alley commented that he would surely have been dead if Joe Lesniewskiy had not warned him of the German grenade. Alley spent two months in the hospital. He was then sent to 12th Replacement Depot and was about to be reassigned to another company. He did not want that and decided to go AWOL. Selling a German Luger for money to get to Paris, he found Richard Winters, former Easy Company commander, who helped him arrange transportation to return to Easy Company. He arrived at Mourmelon on 15 December 1944, a few days before the 101st Airborne was deployed to Bastogne $40.00