The unit was used to provide replacements for overseas, but was later assigned to the 13th Airborne Division and sent to the Western Front in anticipation of combat with the Germans and was later en route to the Pacific Theatre when the war came to an end.

It was during this early period that the regiment lost some men as replacements overseas, famed General John K. Singlaub returned from an exercise to find his platoon having been sent overseas as replacements, an event which led to his eventual transfer to OSS Jedburgh Team JAMES, beginning his long career in Special Operations.

Indications here for a deployment to the Pacific Theatre, a rumour which was further fuelled when 23 Japanese-Americans were attached to the unit to assist with Regimental training.

The 515th was based out of Laurinburg-Maxton Army Airbase, with the initial assignment of capturing 'enemy' airfields, allowing glider reinforcements to land.

Not all went according to plan as high winds and Air Corps inexperience resulted in bad scattering of the jumpers, however the 515th recovered and moved out capturing the Camp Mackall Airport.

The rest of the maneuvers proceeded somewhat smoothly, with one exception being a trooper who was in the lead of a creek crossing falling asleep against a tree resulting in his buddies halting and waiting for him to move out, despite being up to their waists in swamp.

The 13th Airborne Division docked at Le Havre on 8 February 1945 and moved out to Camp Lucky Strike near St. Valery-en-Caux, France.

Auxerre was a former French Army Garrison, consisting of four story barracks, surrounding a quadrangle, which was full of trash, left by the Germans.

Time and again the men kitted up, boarded their aircraft, only to be told that the DZ had been overrun by friendly forces and it was back to the Marshalling Area Blues.

The 515th Parachute Infantry Regiment was on the U.S. Army's rolls and still functioning when it was shut down on 25 February 1946, its men transferring to the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division.