23rd Annual Currahee Military Weekend kicks off Thursday with showings of The Girl Who Wore Freedom documentary

This coming weekend marks the 23rd anniversary of a paratrooper reunion that grew to a community event that draws visitors from across the country and throughout the world each year.

The event started in 2001 as a reunion for the men who trained at Camp Toccoa during World War II, and now, the four-day Currahee Military Weekend celebrates and honors the military history of Toccoa and the role Camp Toccoa played in the growth and identity of Toccoa/Stephens County. 

 As summarized by the Currahee Military Weekend promotional materials, in July 1942, 5,000 men arrived at a training camp at the base of Currahee Mountain, five miles outside of Toccoa. These soldiers were training to become a new type of soldier – a paratrooper. Over the next few years 17,000 soldiers from 501st, 506th, 511th, and 517th Parachute Infantry Division (PID) trained at Camp Toccoa in preparation for combat in the  European Theatre of WWII. 

Many have learned about  the Camp Toccoa paratroopers through the 2001 ten-part miniseries based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s best-seller, Band of Brothers – but Currahee Military Weekend gives local residents and visitors alike an opportunity to learn even more about the lives, struggles and achievements of the Screaming Eagles – the nickname for the 101st Airborne, which was activated one minute after midnight on August 16, 1942, played an integral role in countless offensives and occupation operations, and remains the only air assault division of the U.S. Army, according to the army.mil website.

As in years past, showings of the documentary film, The GIrl Who Wore Freedom, will serve as the opening event of the annual Currahee Military Weekend.

The award-winning documentary, The Girl Who Wore Freedom, will have two public showings at

the Historic Ritz Theatre the Thursday, October 5.  Both the 2pm and 7pm screenings will be followed by a question and answer session with the movie’s director and producer, Christian Taylor.

The first chapter of this documentary series follows the German occupation of Normandy and the

liberation of the French people, told through stories of the French who lived through the events and who still speak of a love that bonds generations of Free French to their American liberators.

The film starts with a young woman, Dany Patrix, who is now in her 80s, but the age of five on D-Day. She remembers the soldiers giving her candy and her parents helping the GI’s. 

Taylor remembers, “ I met her first and she introduced me to other people that lived through the liberation, and it was eye opening to me because I learned that 20,000 French civilians lost their lives in the battle of Normandy and as Americans, we have never heard that story before.”

Taylor says she found out something remarkable when speaking with the older French people, saying “Despite losing different family members, they still had incredible gratitude to all of the allies for their liberation and I wanted to know what made that gratitude last. That is what this film talks about and led me to talk with veterans who actually liberated these little French towns in Normandy. What I learned is that these people have raised money to bring back the veterans for many years, and when the veterans come back, they are liberated from their oppressive memories of the war, and they seem like they are young men again. You can see how the love of the French people transformed these WWII veterans and it was a beautiful thing to see.”

Tickets for the documentary showing are $10 and can be purchased at the box office before each showing. 

All proceeds benefit the Stephens County Historical Society. 

For more information, contact Ritz Theatre General Manager Tami Mayhugh at 706-244-0039.

WNEG News will provide further coverage of the upcoming Currahee Military Weekend Events in tomorrow’s broadcasts and online at wnegradio.com and our Facebook page.