By Charlene H. JordanCarl Oscar Edward Carlson, born June 18, 1922, was a paratrooper in the 17th Airborne, killed in action March 24, 1945, within weeks of the end of World War II on May 8, 1945.The 17th Airborne Division, “The Golden Talons,” was an airborne infantry division of the United States Army with the motto “Thunder from Heaven.” Operation Plunder had begun in the evening of March 23. By 10 a.m. on the 24th, the first Allied airborne units began to land on the eastern bank of the Rhine River.Carl Carlson was the son of Swedish emigrants and an ...