{"id":2287,"date":"2008-08-16T17:15:19","date_gmt":"2008-08-16T21:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=2287"},"modified":"2008-08-16T18:18:15","modified_gmt":"2008-08-16T22:18:15","slug":"august-16th-is-national-airborne-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=2287","title":{"rendered":"August 16th is National Airborne Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It’s fitting that I was with some young paratroopers at midnight last night with Uncle Jimbo, both of us old paratroopers. One of my co-bloggers here, COB6, is also a member of that elite club which requires that you obey the law of gravity. But here’s the history of why today is considered “our” day<\/a>;<\/p>\n

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In July 1940, the task of organizing the platoon began. First Lieutenant William T. Ryder from the 29th Infantry Regiment volunteered and was designated the test platoon’s Platoon Leader and Lieutenant James A. Bassett was designated Assistant Platoon Leader. Based on high standards of health and rugged physical characteristics, forty-eight enlisted men were selected from a pool of 200 volunteers. Quickly thereafter, the platoon moved into tents near Lawson Field, and an abandoned hanger was obtained for use as a training hall and for parachute packing.<\/p>\n

Lieutenant Colonel William C. Lee, a staff officer for the Chief of Infantry, was intently interested in the test platoon. He recommended that the men be moved to the Safe Parachute Company at Hightstown, NJ for training on the parachute drop towers used during the New York World’s Fair. Eighteen days after organization, the platoon was moved to New Jersey and trained for one week on the 250-foot free towers.<\/p>\n

The training was particularly effective. When a drop from the tower was compared to a drop from an airplane, it was found that the added realism was otherwise impossible to duplicate. The drop also proved to the troopers that their parachutes would function safely. The Army was so impressed with the tower drops that two were purchased and erected at Fort Benning on what is now Eubanks Field. Later, two more were added. Three of the original four towers are still in use training paratroopers at Fort Benning. PLF training was often conducted by the volunteers jumping from PT platforms and from the back of moving 2 1\/2 ton trucks to allow the trainees to experience the shock of landing.<\/p>\n

Less than forty-five days after organization, the first jump from an aircraft in flight by members of the test platoon was made from a Douglas B-18 over Lawson Field on 16 August, 1940. Before the drop, the test platoon held a lottery to determine who would follow Lieutenant Ryder out of the airplane and Private William N. (Red) King became the first enlisted man to make an official jump as a paratrooper in the United States Army. On 29 August, at Lawson Field, the platoon made the first platoon mass jump held in the United States.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From Blackfive<\/a> (another fallschirmjager<\/em>);<\/p>\n

Please visit these Airborne Qualified bloggers:<\/p>\n

Froggy Ruminations<\/a> (SEAL now blogging here)
\nSF Alpha Geek<\/a> (SF – back from a tour in Afghanistan and elsewhere)
\nUncle Jimbo<\/a> (SF Vet)
\nJB’s Sanctuary<\/a> (SF Reservist)
\nJack Army<\/a> (SF, now with 25th ID in Iraq)
\nMichael Yon<\/a> (SF Vet – Independent Journalist in Iraq)
\nThunder Six’s 365 and a wakeup<\/a> (Army OIF Vet)
\nThe Late Major Delaplane’s Fire Power Forward<\/a> (Army OEF Vet)
\nBloodspite of Technography<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nJohn Donovan of Argghhh!<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nDogtulosba, ink.<\/a> (Army Airborne Combat Engineer somewhere dangerous)
\nFred Schoeneman<\/a> (Army RANGER Vet)
\nTobacco Joe at Cadillac Tight<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nGold Falcon’s Jump Blog<\/a> (SF Vet)
\nFrancis Marion’s Where I Stand<\/a> (SF)
\nAirborne Combat Engineer<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nAmerican Soldier<\/a> (Army OIF Vet)
\nTexas Music<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nThe Fastest Squirrel<\/a> (SF Vet)
\nStreams<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nBill Roggio<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nWatch Your Six<\/a> (Army OIF Vet)
\nShared Daily<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nAlexander the Average<\/a> (Army OIF\/OEF Vet)
\nGreg, Stuck In Qatar<\/a> (Army in, well, Qatar)
\nRight In Raleigh<\/a> (SF Vet)
\nMajor Dad 1984<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nOld And Evil<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nAssumption of Command<\/a> (Army OIF Vet)
\nTBone’s War Journal<\/a>
\nThe Universe and Other Things<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nCounter Column<\/a> (Army OIF Vet)
\nDoug Petch<\/a> (Army DS and OIF Vet)
\nCan’t Spell Lost Without The LT<\/a> (Newest Airborne grad and newest blogger)
\nCop the Truth<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nThe Chronicles of Jake<\/a> (SF Student)
\nThe Illegal and Political Rantings of Shamrock7<\/a> (SF Student)
\nFun Turns to Tragedy<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nPJ Country<\/a> (USAF Pararescue)
\nEuphoric Reality
\nFun Turns to Tragedy!<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nBouhammer’s Afghan Blog<\/a> (Army OEF Vet)
\nCrotchety Old Bastard<\/a> (RANGER)
\nThis Ain’t Hell<\/a>
\nOutside the Beltway<\/a> (Army Vet)
\nExcalibur Blog<\/a>
\nEigty-Deuce on the Loose<\/a> (82nd in Iraq)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And don’t forget my old buddy Mark at Paratrooper.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Part of my own history as a paracaidista<\/em><\/p>\n

\"75rr-4.gif\"<\/a>\"moatengators.jpg\"<\/a>\"325.png\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Keep your feet and knees together.<\/p>\n

Hit the hole, poleman. Hit the hole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s fitting that I was with some young paratroopers at midnight last night with Uncle Jimbo, … August 16th is National Airborne Day<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloggers-and-stuff","category-support-the-troops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}