PARATROOPER TRAINING-- by Donald Burgett, 101st Airborne, 506th Regiment

     

"Covering my head with my arms, I rolled to get out of his way, but his feet caught me in  the side and mashed my ribs a little.  The trooper scrambled to his feet and still in his harness ran over and asked if I was hurt.  'No,' I replied.  'But from the bottom you've got the biggest feet I've ever seen.'  

Father Francis Sampson (101st Airborne Division)
prays over dead paratroopers in Normandy, France
 the second week in June 1944.
 Notice the bodies are wrapped in parachutes.

     He apologized for landing on me, then taking his chute headed in the direction of the trucks.  Limping along behind I heard someone yell, 'Look out'; almost overhead a man came hurtling down with an unopened chute.  It was pulled out of the pack tray, but remained closed, a streamer.

     The man hit a few yards away, making a sound like a large mattress going 'floomp' against the ground, and for the second time in a week I witnessed a man hitting the ground so hard that he actually bounced.  Limping over, I looked down at him and nearly fell over when he opened his eyes and asked, 'What happened?'

     'Your chute didn't open,' I told him.

     'You're kidding,' he said.  'Help me up, I've got to get going.'

     'You're not going anywhere,' a sergeant said as a jeep pulled up, 'except to a hospital.'  The man on the ground protested, saying that he had to make another jump that night.  

Father Leo Combs giving last rights to soldier who stepped on a mine

     When he tried to get up all he could do was raise his head a little, then fall back to the ground.  It was then I noticed the crosses on his collar; who else but a chaplain could fall 1,000 feet with an unopened chute and live?  He had suffered a broken leg and internal injuries, but just how bad I never did find out.  The noncom told him to lie still until the meat wagon came; the medics would take care of everything from here on out.  

     'Ive told you a thousand times to check your canopy first when you leave the plane; let this be a lesson to you,' (the sergeant said)"  

--Donald Burgett, CURRAHEE!, p. 43-45

Original Photo Top: US Signal Corps
Original Photo Bottom:  http://v-forvictory.blogspot.com/2009/10/shepherds-in-combat-boots.html
Book:  CURRAHEE! by Donald Burgett