The men who trained at Georgia’s Camp Toccoa — a “little camp outside a little town far off the beaten path” — helped turn the tide of World War II.

They were a new kind of soldier, the paratrooper, that jumped from above and landed behind enemy lines.  They were the first Americans into France on D-Day, they fought through the Netherlands and they battled at the Bulge.

Decades later their stories, and specifically those of the Easy Company of the 506th of the 101st Airborne Division, would be immortalized in a book and then an HBO miniseries, both called "Band of Brothers."

But first, they trained at Toccoa — where today, a small band of volunteers is working to revive their legacy and give visitors from the world over a better glimpse of history.

They’re renovating buildings, constructing new ones and piecing a warplane back together. And that have grander visions, too.

“It’s the love and respect for them,” one woman says. “It’s their story that needs to be honored.”

To read more of the story of Camp Toccoa, and the ongoing efforts to bring it back to life, visit myAJC.com.

May 19, 2017, Toccoa, Georgia - Patrick Hall points to the sign and area of Camp Toccoa at Currahee in Toccoa, Georgia, on May 19, 2017. (HENRY TAYLOR / HENRY.TAYLOR@AJC.COM)
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