National Airborne Day
National Airborne Day is set on the day of the first parachute jump conducted by the Army’s Parachute Test Platoon on August 16th, 1940.
On the morning of 16 August 1940 the jump began. After the C-33 leveled off at 1500 feet and flew over the jump field, Lt. Ryder was in the door ready to jump. Warrant Officer Wilson knelt in the door waiting to pass the Go Point. When this was reached, he slapped Lt. Ryder on the leg and the first jump was made. Now Number One moved into position. Slap! “Go! Jump!”
Still no movement.
It was too late now to jump on this pass. Mr. Wilson motioned Number One to go back to his seat. As the plane circled Mr. Wilson talked to Number One. Number One wanted another chance. Okay, this time we’ll do it. Back into the jumping position and once again, slap!
Sadly, no movement. Number One returned to his seat.
Private William N. “Red” King moved into the jumping position in the door. Slap! Out into American military immortality leaped Red King… the first enlisted man of the test platoon to jump out of an airplane. Number One was transferred to another post and anonymity. Now there were forty-seven. Was Number One a coward? I don’t think many experienced jumpers would say so. There are things some men cannot do at a given time. Possibly another time would have been fine. He wanted to. He intended to. He just could not… at least that morning.
The first US airborne operation was in support of Operation Torch, November 1942, in North Africa when 531 members of the 2nd Battalion 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment flew 1600 miles in 39 C-47s, of which only ten aircraft dropped their pacs, the rest landed because of navigation difficulties and low fuel.
Ten years ago, 3rd Battalion, 75th Rangers secured an airfield in Kandahar in support of Operation Enduring Freedom on October 19, 2001. On March 23rd, 2003, A Company, 3/75th conducted an airborne operation to secure an airfield in Northern Iraq a few days before the 173rd Airborne Brigade parachuted into Northern Iraq when the Turks wouldn’t allow the 4th Infantry Division to off-load and invade Iraq from their borders.
In years past, the 82d Airborne Division Association, mostly the DC Chapter, had to lobby to get recognition for National Airborne Day from the Senate every year, until 2009 when the Senate made it permanent.
We used to get a Presidential Proclamation every year, but for some reason, we haven’t had any since 2008.
That’s me, on my ass as usual, in the days before Eric Shinseki;
Category: Historical
The best, to my mind, anyway, book about the airborne that I’ve read is “Those Devils in Baggy Pants” By Ross Carter.
Carter was a member of the 504th, and one of only 3 men of his platoon to survive the war. He wrote his memoirs after he came back. He and a buddy apparently had some trouble reintegrating into civilian life afterward, so they reenlisted.
Having survived all of the war and then rejoining the army, Ross Cater was diagnosed with cancer, which did what the Germans and his training couldn’t do.
More here:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51156
God Bless all who have faced the door, and stepped out into God’s own heaven to await their fate.
Just wanted to say ” All the Way” to my 82nd brothers and sisters. Been a lot of years since I had my knees in the breeze and miss it every day. The 82nd was a way of life !
AATW! And let me say that I preferred casual slacks to baggy pants.
I know what you mean, MSG Retired. While just a youngster, I had the privilege to jump with them once while attached, and to serve with another unit on jump status a couple of years later. Jumping is something that always gets your entire, undivided attention (if you’re sane), and can scare the hell out of you. But it’s also something you never forget, and always miss. It’s one helluva rush.
I’d say something about being soldiers once, and young – but as I recall a man named Moore has dibs on that line. And he expressed that thought (and many others) far better than I ever could.
My Airborne career started with a simple question from the recruiter, “Hey kid, how’d you like an extra $75 a month in your pay check?” The very first airplane I ever rode in was a C130 going to Fryar DZ. I don’t miss much about the Army since I retired, but every time I see a high performance aircraft fy overhead, I die a little inside knowing that I will never be in the back of one getting ready to exit ever again.
Actually, Bush created it, but only issued proclamations thrice; 2002, 2004, and 2005. See here: http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/proclamations/ And I may be wrong, but Congress began passing resolutions in August 2009 to honor it; hence, the president doesn’t have to also issue a proclamation.
As of the time I left the 507th in Benning in 2009, there was still one old paratrooper from the test platoon still alive. I’d recognize his name if I saw it but does anyone know if he still is?
Hell yeah! I have 3 days a year for me (birthday, airborne day, and veterans day)! Now if we could just get free meals at Applebee’s on airborne day = /
Jumpers Hit it!!! I was never as scared to jump out of the plane as I was just before looking straight at the horizon and waiting for the balls of my feet to hit the deck, every jump, always the biggest fear….landing.
Been over 2 years since my last jump. I miss it so much, I’d even volunteer for a night mass-tac if I could.
I hold a lot of respect for the Airborne. I went a different route. All my units where either Light, Air Assault, or Stryker.
“Too far to walk. Too scared to jump. Air Assault!!!!!” tongue in cheek.
[…] National Airborne Day August 16th, 2012 The folks at Life of Duty sent us this video to help with our observance of National Airborne Day. Those WWII paratroopers were all heroes. Talk about stepping out into the unknown, most of them […]
lol, i remember my first jump. The Jump master looked at us all and held up his hand, making the a small circle with his thumb and finger and said “I know! PUCKER FACTOR!!!”
@8. It’s not the fall that kills you, it’s that sudden stop.
@7 – When I was cadre at the 507th, I had the honor to meet a few of the surviving Test Platoon members on a couple of occasions. I looked around a bit to see if I could decipher who may still be with us, but haven’t had any luck yet.
AATW!
There were times I wondered WTF I was doing, and to be honest it was every single time I was rigged up and standing up to go, or sitting on the edge of a UH=1H waiting for “GO!”.
Today… I would do it all again. Of course I would need an entirely new skeletal system as it was not the fall, but that sudden deceleration at the end that gets you! Human Lawn Dart!! AATW!!
Shouldn’t today be the “What Kinda Knucklehead am I to Jump out of a Perfectly Good Aircraft” Day?!? Let’s revue…competent pilot flying the, said, perfectly good aircraft straight and level with both wings attached, not on fire and with all engines working properly. Hmmm…
YatYas1833, I guess you’ve never landed in a Caribou, have you?
Jump School, Fort Campbell, December 1959, where many of the cadre were combat veterans of WWII or Korea. One I remember in particular, SFC Cannon, a hard as nails SOB, had four combat jump stars on his master-blaster wings. It was cold as hell and raining much of the time with non-stop screaming in your face all the time resulting in a fairly high drop-out rate in ground school.
My cherry jump was from a C-123 Provider on Yamato Drop Zone which wasn’t too bad. The next four qualifying jumps were entirely different: from C-119 Flying Boxcars which vibrated so violently taking off from Campbell Army Airfield with a full load, you had to lift your jump boots off the floor to avoid the unbearable tingling in your feet. Jumping those 119’s wasn’t so great either. The boat-tailed configuration at the rear of the narrow fuselage meant you really had to get some spring in your step going out the door to avoid colliding with the trooper going out the opposite door.
Went on to spend almost six years in the 101st and 82d including a tour in Nam with the 101st. Those were the days, my Airborne Friends.
Hondo-As a young SSGT, I was COL Moore’s battalion tactical net radio operator in the forward TOC for about 36 hours during the battle of Troung Loung in 1966. He was one tough Airborne soldier.
I salute you all.
Jonn: I’m guessin’ he’s never flown in a C123, either (2 turning and 2 burning for takeoff – sometimes with no doors, just straps, on the fuselage passenger entrances). I’ve never been so glad to get the hell out of an aircraft in my life!
Poetrooper: my cherry jump was out of a C123 also – close to 18 years after yours. By then, the C123 fleet was in decidedly worse repair than 1959. Your description of the conditions in the C119s you jumped sounds kinda familiar; by then, C123s shook like hell on takeoff, too. And when those damned small jet engines on the C123 fired up for takeoff, you couldn’t hear yourself think.
Jonn, I served in the ‘modern’ military and we flew in C-130s not “Jenny” bi-planes!?! 😮 We even had these new gizmos called helicopters…doh!
Yes, well, YatYas in those prehistoric days we got $55/month tax free for jumping out of a perfectly crappy aircraft. Beer was $.89/six pack and a half gallon of Old Rocking Chair was $3.50. And you got change back from your dollar at MacDonald’s for a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke.
Good gravy some of you guys are old…I mean seasoned!
1st jump was a C123 and they had the rear ramp down, as we went out the side doors. Man was that an eye-opener…watching the chutes opening in the rear.
Jumping out of perfectly good aircraft? What kind of sick sumbitch does that?
@Sparky – Statistically safer than landing on one….and chicks dig paratroopers.
Sparky, I hear ya! That’s as crazy as those ‘tards that get into a thermos bottle and go 300 foots under water and stay there for days and weeks!?! Talk outta yer mnd!
@25. That’s why posers always start out with airborne wings on their uniforms – for the CHICKS, man.
Any woman dumb enough to offer up the goods for a uniform would likely be more impressed with a Recruiters Badge than Jump wings. It’s all about size and bling.
Love the comments. I guess when we get old we like to think about our youth. I too got to experience a c-119 for my first jump over Friar DZ. Had a lot of great jumps over the time in the 82nd and SF and some frightening moments. Those were the days. When the Coast Guard C-130 flies over the house, get the urge all over again.
The C-141 Starlifter, baby!
Happy National Airborne Day, Jumpers!!!
If only I could… brain surgery prevents me, but this “leg” supports you 110%!!!
Happy Landings!!!
Well hell, if we’re gonna tell jump stories on Airborne Day, let me tell you guys the most beautiful as well as interesting experience I ever had during a jump. A cold front had come through Fort Campbell depositing several inches of snow. A couple of nights later, after the skies had cleared, elements of the 327th Battle Group made a night jump on Yamato Drop Zone. There was a full moon and the sight was one I’ll remember to my grave. Because of the cold density of the air, we seemed to just hang there for a while and I was so mesmerized by the sight of all those dozens of chutes and jumpers silhouetted against that brightly moonlit drop zone, that I forgot the business at hand. Hard to imagine a PFC doing that isn’t it?
Suddenly I heard a cracking, snapping sound beneath me and looked down just as my Corcorans sank into another canopy. My own chute began a slow collapse and I yelled down to the guy below me to pull a hard slip and I’d go off the other side. He did and I did and I gotta tell you it was a little hairy until my own canopy fully filled again just a couple of hundred feet above the ground.
You can’t imagine how many times I’ve kicked myself in the ass for not having a camera with me on that jump. I can still see it in my wrinkled old brain though, a memory to hold and cherish forever, one that relatively few others have ever or will ever share.
[…] Caribou Landing Story August 16th, 2012 Jonn, your reference to Caribou landings reminded me of a time when I did land in one but another passenger almost didn’t. I was […]
@Poetrooper – I still thanks my lucky stars that I never had to experience that. The only real pucker jump that I had was a solo affair while teaching at JM school, we planned a Cadre pass [as we usually did] after the students exited.
I got JMPI’d and everything, no cowboy shit for me. But after exit and on opening shock, both ejector snaps for the legstraps simultaneously…..well…ejected. I fell through the harness about 18 feet. So it only felt like that….really just until the waistband dug itself into my armpits. I reached through the risers and pulled myself up to see where I was going, even though I couldn’t steer [couldn’t raise my arms for the entire next day].
Since there were only two of us on the pass, and my kit bag fluttered spectacularly to the ground, I was certain that the DZSO and Rigger Safety were racing at breakneck speed to where my body would land in a fabulous crumpled heap. Nope.
I hit the ground, tried to decide if I’d found religion or not, and extracted my self…looked over and saw my Airborne brothers shooting the shit at the RAM…oblivious to what I briefly thought was going to be a near death experience.
Never figured out why they both came open, though I lost a little faith in the famous Ball Detents. Did the only thing I could do….jumped again the next day.
CI…If I remember correctly, there were two alive when I was assigned to the 507th in December 2008 but one died shortly after. Dude had an unusual name…I’ll just look up the list and see if I recognize it now that I’m on my computer
Ok Benjamin Reese is the one that died in 2009 While I was there but I couldn’t figure out which one was still alive when I left
http://www.army.mil/article/18898/Soldiers_honor_member_of_original_Parachute_Test_Platoon/
http://www.army.mil/media/55746/