OMG, that's so sad that those men died. You don't always think about Soldiers being killed during training, but I guess it happens.
RIP Jumpers.
Community Member
Re: The day it rained dead paratroopers.
OMG, that's so sad that those men died. You don't always think about Soldiers being killed during training, but I guess it happens.
RIP Jumpers.
"American parachutists...devils in baggy pants...are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere..."
taken from the diary of a German officer killed at Anzio
PRO DEO ET PATRIA
The shoe fits
Re: The day it rained dead paratroopers.
No one gets to choose how they go but if you gotta go, go in style at least. Screwin' or Jumpin' are preferable to waiting for the Reaper hooked up to a bunch of machines while your family goes broke watching. Then again, dying in your sleep in bed at home is a less expensive and traumatic exit. I think that's what I'll take, in about another 60 years.
Paratrooper
Re: The day it rained dead paratroopers.
I recall a similar (Parachute, not coke accident) occurring in the early eighties (80, maybe even 79) right before I got to Bragg when the second bird rolled through a stick of jumpers (again, lower altitude), but I wasn't there when it actually happened so can't say for sure. In that one, ten jumpers suppposedly bought it. I know the incident was being used as another cautionary tale when I was there.
"I'm the right-wing 'extremist' your mother warned you about..."
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend unto the death your right to say it! - Voltaire
"I think we won..."
People Sleep Peacefully in Their Beds at Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready to Do Violence on Their Behalf- George Orwell
Paratrooper
Re: The day it rained dead paratroopers.
Well, if it's gonna happen to you try and piss on the pilot's windshield before he hits you!
"Follow Me! Let's Go! All the Way! Airborne!!"
MOΛΩN ΛABE!
82d AG Co., '82-'83
B Co., 1(A)/325th Inf Rgt, '83-'85
Paratrooper
Re: The day it rained dead paratroopers.
I was there in '88 in the 2/504th and heard about it happening. Sad and unnecessary accident.Originally Posted by zuluzerosix
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value."
Thomas Paine, volunteer in the Continental Army in his The American Crisis.
Paratrooper
Re: The day it rained dead paratroopers.
Kind of funny (not) how the title of an article is seared into ones memory but not the factual details. After all these many years The Day It Rained Dead Paratroopers is very, very fresh in my mind. For all my Brethren who gave all, even though you were lost in training exercises, your loss is not any less than all the brave heroes lost in combat. RIP
Paratrooper
Re: The day it rained dead paratroopers.
If it was nice and safe, then anybody could do it...
Proud to be a Blue Star Family
Co C, 1/504 PIR, 82D ABN DIV 1971-1973
Paratrooper
Re: The day it rained dead paratroopers.
As the sign over the 82nd Jumpmaster School used to say (probably still does) "The Sky - even more than the Sea- is Unforgiving of the Slightest Mistake."
"I'm the right-wing 'extremist' your mother warned you about..."
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend unto the death your right to say it! - Voltaire
"I think we won..."
People Sleep Peacefully in Their Beds at Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready to Do Violence on Their Behalf- George Orwell
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