Airborne Beer

After running 3 miles at the park this evening, I shared an Airborne Beer with Hans Jaeger and John Cook.
In 1944, the 101st Airborne Division (the unit I served with in Vietnam) was in Bastogne, Belgium, surrounded by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge.  Private Vince Speranza, who was in a foxhole on the perimeter, was sent into the city to find batteries for the radio.  While there, he went to visit his wounded friend who was in a church being used as a hospital.  His friend ask him to get him something to drink.  Speranza went down the street and found a bar, but it was bombed out.  Then, he found another bar, which had a working tap.  He filled up his helmet with beer and brought it back to the church.  Other wounded soldiers wanted beer too, so he had to make another trip.  The regimental surgeon at the hospital caught him and sent him back to his unit.  Sixty five years later, Vince Speranza revisited Bastogne.  He told someone what he did and they told him that he was famous in Europe.  After the war, the story about the beer in the helmet got out and a local Bastogne Brewery started making Airborne Beer.  They serve it in little ceramic helmets.
My friend, Hans Jaeger, served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam.  For Christmas, his sons bought him a 6-pack of Airborne Beer, which comes with the ceramic helmet.  They had it shipped from Batogne.  He brought one of the bottles to the park tonight and we shared it and he gave me the empty bottle.  Good stuff.  7.5% percent alcohol.  It costs about $70 a 6-pack, but shipping to the US costs a lot more.
Vince Speranza tells the story here.
https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AhKGiACKtZTjyzJFwRe5NKebvZx4?fr=yfp-t-300-s&toggle=1&fp=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&p=youtube%20airborne%20beer%20bastogne