Item 525 or to give it it’s original designation: I Company, 525th Parachute Infantry is a unit that exists only on a roster. It is a forgotten American unit from WWII and the people that created it would like to keep it that way.
It underwent a several redesignations until it finally wound up as the 525th Special Service Detachment but it was always known by it’s original nickname of “Item 525”. It was an easy designation to remember. If there were “special problems” regarding the Axis forces then Item 525 got to go deal with them. They not only went up against the Karotechia but also their counterparts in Italy (Corte del Drago) and Japan (Unit 831). Their mission was one of search and destroy. They took what they could and destroyed the rest. Item 525 took no prisoners and left no survivors. That was their kind of war.
Item 525 came into existence on October 31st, 1942 as the result of an encounter involving a unit of American paratroopers on night manuevers in England and something described as “a smoky, black dragon kind of thing”. When the fighting was over, more than half the paras were dead or injured but the thing was destroyed. When reports of this incident reached Commander Martin Cook, he recognized that here were a group of soldiers that had learned how to successfully deal with a Mythos threat. He had the survivors sent to a remote estate in northern Scotland where they were formed into a “ghost” unit as a cover for their activities. The original designation was I Company, 525th Parachute Infantry. In June of 1943, the unit was redesignated the 525th Special Service Detachment. The survivors were “stood down” in September of 1945. The unit’s operational history was buried deep withing the Delta Green archives.
As for the personnel, many tried to go back to civilian life. Some succeeded while others didn’t. A few opted to stay in the Army or went on to work for the CIA. Unlike other units there have been no reunions or any attempt at them for that matter. As another year passes, more and more of them fade away.
