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If You’ve Jumped Out of Army Aircraft – With a Parachute!

by Zero Ponsdorf••43

Preface: Some time ago I did a post here about my late father-in-law. In WWII he was one the first airborne soldiers that went to war. He participated in Operation Market Garden although in a glider. He told me a story or two that his family had never heard. Like being warned to pick up his feet before the glider landed, etc.

Point of this post is that the family has decided to offer what we have to the museum at Fort Bragg. We are collecting pictures and documents, etc. What we do not YET have is a contact point willing to help us organize the material for presentation to the museum.

We are just beginning this process and it occured to me that some here might be able to offer clues and insight to help the process along.

Coupla pix: dan1a_1 dan1a_2

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43 thoughts on “If You’ve Jumped Out of Army Aircraft – With a Parachute!”

      1. I’m sure that ALL of them did a MUCH better job of checking fuel levels than Daniel (Not yet Disbarred) Bernath the Fred Phelps Clone.

        1. Rgr that. The rb and unit had me thinking I might know you. Just coincidence.

          AATW!

  5. Fuzzy here, are you wanting to donate to the 82nd museum on Fort Bragg, or the Airborne Special Operations museum in Fayetteville?

    Both are nice but ASOM is bigger, better funded,and better attended.

      2. Zero, Hondo lists contacts below. Both of the museums have web sites. Look them over.

  6. My dad rode gliders. He thought my brother and I were crazy because we used parachutes. Go figure.

    1. Well, at least we got hazardous duty pay for parachutes – it is my understanding that glider riders didn’t get the extra $55/month.

      1. When I left the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment (P.I.R.), I went to the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment (A.I.R.). At that time, the 325th had been a parachute unit for decades, but our designation was ‘Airborne Infantry Regiment’ because of our roots as a Glider Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne in WWII. A few of the old glidermen would still show up during All American Week each year.

        The unofficial motto of the Glidermen was “no jump wings, no jump pay, but never a dull moment”, because while they didn’t get any special pay or insignia at first, glider landings were just as inherently dangerous as parachute jumps (the Parachutist Badge was authorized in 1941, glider wings and pay didn’t come along until 1944).

        Their answer to ‘Blood Upon the Risers” was “The Glider Riders”:

        (Sung to the tune of “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze.”)

        One day I answered the popular call,
        And I got in the Army to be on the ball,
        An infantry outfit, foot-soldiers and all,
        Is where they put me to train.
        They gave me my basic at Camp Claiborne,
        There I was happy and never forlorn,
        Till they split us up and made us Airborne,
        But the pay was exactly the same.

        Chorus

        Oh! Once I was happy, but now I’m Airborne,
        Riding in gliders all tattered and torn,
        The pilots are daring, all caution they scorn,
        And the pay is exactly the same.

        We glide through the air in our flying caboose,
        It’s actions are graceful just like a fat goose,
        We hike on the pavement till our joints have come loose,
        And the pay is exactly the same.

        Once I was Infantry, but now I’m a dope,
        Riding in gliders, attached to a rope,
        Safety in landing is only a hope
        And the pay is exactly the same.

        We glide through the air in a tactical state,
        Jumping is useless, it always too late,
        No chute for the soldier who rides in a crate,
        And the pay is exactly the same.

        We fight in fatigues, no fancy jump-suits,
        No bright leather jackets, no polished jump-boots,
        We crash-land by glider without parachutes
        And the pay is exactly the same.

        We glide through the air with “Jennie” the jeep,
        Held on our laps unable to leap,
        If she breaks loose, our widows will weep,
        And the pay is exactly the same.

        We work in Headquarters we sit on a chair,
        We figure our tactics and take to the air,
        We fly over “Jerry” and drop in his hair,
        And the pay is exactly the same.

        We hike and we sweat, and we load and we lash,
        We tie it down well, just in case of a crash,
        We take off and land, and climb out in a flash,
        And the pay is exactly the same.

        We glide through the air with the greatest of ease,
        We do a good job, and we try hard to please,
        The Finance Department we pester and tease.
        But the pay is exactly the same.

        1. I’ll send that to my Dad. He went to jump school in 1947, but had to have 5 glider rides before graduating; the school certificate at that time stated the graduate is both a paratrooper and gliderman. I’m certain he’ll appreciate the song!

  7. A large portion of the gliders were crash-landed by the pilots and left behind. There were two pilots in the cockpit. The gliders were towed by a C-47 (now a Dc-3). There were plans to increase the size and range of them, which were later abandoned.

    Anyone who jumped out of those flying coffins at night — well, you can’t teach fearlessness. It just is, or is not.

    Here’s a little bit about it.
    http://www.ww2marketgarden.com/index.html

    Zero, did you add his story to his unit’s history?
    Here’s a link:

    http://www.ww2-airborne.us/division/campaigns/holland.html

    3. In my company office we had an aerial photo of a glider LZ in Europe (either France for Overlord or Holland for Market Garden) taken the morning after the assault. Next to it was a photo taken from about the same perspective 25 years later. You could still make out the silhouettes of the gliders where the vegetation had grown up over them.

      Glidermen were indeed fierce- PFC DeGlopper was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at LaFiere Causeway. The most famous gliderman, of course is this guy:

      Dec. 23, 1944 – “Battle of the Bulge” – An entire U.S. armored division was retreating from the Germans in the Ardennes forest when a sergeant in a tank destroyer spotted an American digging a foxhole. The GI, PFC Martin, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, looked up and asked, “Are you looking for a safe place?” “Yeah” answered the tanker. “Well, buddy,” he drawled, “just pull your vehicle behind me…

      I’m the 82nd Airborne, and this is as far as the bastards are going.”

      I love this poster, because the trooper is carrying a bazooka, his rifle, and two knives, and generally looks like the kind of guy the Germans were wise to be afraid of.

      http://www.517prct.org/documents/82nd_airborne_poster/82nd_airborne_poster.htm

  8. Two possibilities I can find, Zero:

    1. Airborne and Special Operations Museum. Contact info for their foundation can be found at

    http://www.asomf.org/contact-us/

    It opened in 1999 and is in Fayetteville, NC. They’re part of the US Army Museum System.

    2. 82nd Airborne Division Museum. Contact info can be found at

    http://www.82ndairbornedivisionmuseum.com/contact-us/

    It was established in 1945, and is on Fort Bragg proper.

    Best of luck. If either needs or will take the items, either IMO would be a great place for the items relating to your late father-in-law.

    1. There is also the National Infantry Museum at Ft Benning or the National WW2 Museum in New Orleans.

      Both are top notch organizations and if anyone is in those areas, highly recommend going to them.

    2. Or the Center for US Military History at Ft. McNair (if it still there).

      They should be abler to point you in the right direction.

    3. ASOM are fairly quick to return contact requests. If you call the main number, they should be able to put you into direct contact with collections. That being said, a Buddy is PCSing to the S-3 at SWC, and if you’d like to send it to SWC for their collections, I can request he put in a good word.

  9. My dad’s “soft hat” pilot’s headgear is on display at the Patuxent River Naval Aviation Museum. The trick is to provide provenance to link the object with chronology and context; in this case his flight log books. Good luck!

    1. Yup that’s what the Airborne Test Platoon wore, too. You can see it in the old photos.

      At the time the Airborne troops were first being established they didn’t have a “jump helmet.” Some troops were still using the “soup bowl” helmet from WW1. The “steel pot” was developed in (I think) 1940 or 41 but it wasn’t until later that they came up with a ‘jump cabable’ version of it (I believe the jump helmet had an extra chin strap and a couple of pads, one on the front and one on the rear.)

      I went through jump school in 1991 and we wore k-pots, so I never had the experience of jumping with a steel pot.

      1. Martin, Ol’ Poe went through jump school in ’59 at Fort Campbell wearing that damned steel pot everywhere and I can assure you that smacking the front of your pot into the ground or any other obstacle could jolt your vertebrae and ring your chimes.

        And speaking of the long ago, as of the stroke of midnight, Poetrooper has been on this planet three quarters of a century. Considering my younger hell-raising days, that seems like a bit of a miracle.

  11. He’s wearing the Parachutist Badge in the photo above and if he participated in a Combat Glider Assault during Market Garden he would have been awarded the Glider Assault Badge (if he didn’t already have it from going to the school) so I believe he’s the only WWII Soldier I have ever heard of who had both badges during WWII. I’ve never seen a picture of a Soldier from that era wearing both and up until now I don’t think I’ve even read about anyone who was awarded both of them during WWII. I assume he had a CIB as well-having THREE badges in that era would be incredibly rare! Interesting.

    1. I thought the glider badge wasn’t created until the very end of the war or even after the war?

      1. Wikipedia (yeah, I know) says it was created in Jul 1944 and rescinded in May 1961. However, personnel who qualified remained eligible to wear the badge after the badge had been rescinded.

        Wikipedia’s references in this case seem authoritative (TIOH, Federal law, and current awards reg).

  12. Takes a rare breed of brave to so stupid stuff…. my Dad never jumped but was a flak observer a while…they would fly over enemy installations and intentionally draw fire so that he could call in missions to his arty guys. Kind of like a primitive Wild Weasel… I told him he was nuts.

  13. I remember CA AIT at Bragg in 2004. We were at FOB Freedom at Mackall for our CULMEX, and my CAT was assigned the foot mobile missions. Our assigned instructor wasa 32 year Green Beret and VN Vet (Good dude, went to AFG with him four months later) and while humping in the woods, we came upon the wreckage and framework of an old Waco glider. That was seriously cool. Not something you see these days anyway. Also, FUCK I AM OLD!! Lol

    1. Were you an AIT instructor or cadre? Because somebody who went through AIT 12 years ago is not “old” by anyone’s measure. 😉

      1. Martin… Tell that to both my GF or the Junior kids in my Company, I am the old guy lol

  14. Call the Museum, ask to speak to the Director, and just ask them….

    Just manage expectations: My great-uncle was an Eagle Squadron Pilot in WW 2, than lateraled to the Army Air Corps/Air Force- donated his uniform to the Smithsonian. It’s supposed to the be the one on display at the Dulles Annex. But it took them about 20 years to put it on display.

  15. If you visit The Airborne Special Operations museum downtown, and you should, as you walk in the door look down. My old unit has a stone set right there.

    50th Sig BN 35th Sig BDE

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