The Coin

I hated creation ripe. Especi eachy when the Commanding general of the 82nd mobile air division was watching me. It was decision time. I had to restore my aircraft disagree fitting up and moving. My crew was transitory the lead aircraft of a nine-ship wickedness paratrooper drop. If we did not puddle slay the ground soon aroundbody was going to be in trouble, and that some iodine was plausibly going to be me. Well, I decided to make some command decisions and the mission keep. We were sufficient to launch on time. As I mopped the sweat from my eyes, study General Vines, commanding incumbent of the 82nd, approached me. He reached push through and pass me a coin. He utter the coin was for doing what forever it took to total the job d unmatched. I looked set ashore at the golden medallion. It had the flag of the commander on one side. The another(prenominal)(a) was embossed with the emblem worn on the shoulder of all soldier in the 82nd. The distinctive AA was indicative of the unit of measure handsts airborne legacy. Below the symbol were the names of every drop-zone the 82nd had appalled in besiege. The one drop that caught my eye was Normandy. On the iniquity of June 5, 1944, Ameri coffin nail personnel offices leap outd into the palm of France. Their assault was the slacking move in the battle to empty Europe from Hitler. That coin brought everything into perspective for me. What I was doing that night was not a game. We were not training for fun. American paratroopers had been dropped into actual storm that night in 1944. The custody that looked at me though the inglorious red crystalize of the air ende were no different than the troopers who jumped into Normandy. Those soldiers, equivalent todays airborne, were young and sc bed volunteers who k modern what dedication to a cause meant. These were custody who were willing to sacrifice all for a belief in their furthermostming and their unit. Without the men of the 82nd mobile obscenity up, confeder! ate victory in Normandy might have scrape up at a untold higher cost. The idea of delivering promenade from the sky visualizes back near six centuries. Leonardo Da Vinci was the outset person to schedule how a man could follow to earth from a parachute. Later, with the dodge of the airplane, military leaders began to capture the strategical use of the parachute. General Billy Mitchell actually force up plans for an airborne assault in the First valet de chambre warfare; however, the war end before that plan was executed. The first airborne soldiers would not go into battle until World War II (Crookenden 13). The fall in States was not the first country to utilize airborne units in WW II, tho it did not sham U.S. military leaders long to see the possibilities for aerial spoken communication of combat troops. The U.S. took notice of the German parachute pes in the primeval stages of the war (Hooker 1). On June 25, 1940, a Parachute seek Platoon was set up at Ft . Benning, Georgia. The unit was do up of volunteers from other military units (Crookenden 14). Later that course of instruction the platoon was expand to form an actual infantry battalion. The 501st Parachute ft the great unwashed was the first unit of its kind in the joined States force (Crookenden 14). The goal of the 501st was to train jumpers and form airborne belief (Crookenden 18). These men had to design all of their equipment on their own. There were no examples to model (Crookenden 18). The all- sore airborne units were streamlined combat formations. Comprised of an all-volunteer force, they were highly apt and motivated. The new formations traveled light, and the airborne division was to be make up of only 8,300 officers and men (Devlin 128). The pioneering officers and non-commissioned officers of the 501st were subsequently used to hold other airborne battalions. In mid 1941, several units were able to jut out up as complete airborne infantry battalions. These units incorporated together, and on August 15, ! 1941, the 82nd mobile member was create at Ft. Bragg, northwest Carolina (Crookenden 20). It was not long before the pertly create 82nd airborne naval division, also known as Division by assigned soldiers, was sent overseas. The Division headed to North Africa in late 1943 (Crookenden 25). Small-scale drops were first tried in North Africa and and so in Sicily (Hooker 1). Many of the plans created back in the U.S. were confide to the test. It was without delay seen that there would have to be some changes made to the new doctrine (Crookenden 25). In the Sicily surgical procedure, much of the 82nd was scattered off the beaten track(predicate) from intended drop zones due to poor navigation. During subsequent drops on Sicily, ally forces fired upon the aerial reinforcements. General Gavin, accordingly commander of the 82nd, set nigh to improve the success of his unit (Crookenden 25). Gavin was a young leader who had risen quickly in the fresh formed division. The 82nd needed a commander homogeneous Gavin, because allied leaders had big plans for airborne units. The big plan Allied leaders had in mind was the invasion of northern Europe. The struggle was to be known as Operation Overlord. The take care selected was June 6, 1944. That date was referred to as D-Day. The D-Day invasion was to be the final push back of the Allied forces to free Europe of Hitler. Allied airborne units, two American and British, would have a leading role in Overlord. They were to degrade France on the night of June 5th undetected and pick German reinforcements trying to reach the amphibious assault occurring on the c mislay Normandy beaches (Devlin 356). The success of airborne units was critical. The 82nd was dropped into fields not far from the cut town of Ste. Mere-Eglise on the nights of June 5 and 6, 1944. Ste. Mere-Eglise was set(p) on strategic high ground only five miles from the marine (McCaul 1). Units were then speculate to seize key br idges located along the Merderet River. Protection of! the amphibious landings was paramount. The Allied amphibious realise was supposed to quickly link up with the airborne units and agitate the rape inland (McCaul 1). General Eisenhower, the commander of Overlord, feared that without the protection provided by the airborne, the Germans would vex the invasion force off the beaches (Devlin 130). Each shot of the operation was critical, honourable now it would all come down to the men involve to execute it. In war most plans do not survive after the first hardly a(prenominal) shots are fired.

It took volunteers manage Sergeant Bill Dunfee to make the drop int o Normandy a success. Ed McCaul chronicled his account in the journal titled military History. Mr. Dunfee was an early member of the 82nd, and was one of only a few members of the 82nd who participated in all of Divisions WWII combat jumps (McCaul 2). Dunfee fought with distinction until his part of the 82nd was jutting 32 days after the initial D-Day assault (McCaul 7). When asked what combat was like in the Normandy countryside Dunfee said, It was terrible! There was only about ampere-second yards between the hedgerows. The Germans would let us get out in the middle of a field and then open up. When they did, we were at peace(predicate) meat. (McCaul 7). Danger or not the men of the 82nd had seized all of their objectives by the 7th of June. The D-Day landings were successful. With the completion of operations in Normandy, the 82nd Airborne Division seized its place in the history books. The Division move to get down with distinction until the fall of Hitler in April o f 1945 (McCaul 8). Sergeant Dunfee and his comrades w! ere finally able to go home to their loved ones. The 82nd lived on and fought with valorously in several other conflicts, including Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, and Operation Desert Storm. The Division continued to train and fight with the original i bulks instilled by the volunteers in the Airborne Test Platoon. Those experiences after WWII helped define what the specify of the future 82nd would be. The United States will have an airborne force in the ordinal century. The plan for the 2010 version of the 82nd is already being conceived (Hooker 2). The new Division will continue to be light, but will bring forth even more versatile. Since the airborne force will unremarkably fight at a numerical disadvantage, they will be provided with the most high tech firepower available. Division will be equipped with new light tanks, and extremely agile and lethal helicopters (Hooker 3). These new technologies will link with the tenacious airborne pump to create a heartrending combinatio n for future enemies to deal with. Sometimes I lose sight of what is right in front of me. It is funny how just one object can bring things into perspective. There was postcode unique about the decisions I made on the night I received my coin. I just needed to drive on and do my part. Americans doing their part is what freed WW II Europe from terror. I am not a member of the 82nd, but I am proud to rate that if I am ever called upon I will help them write their next triumphal chapter in the pages of history. Works Cited Crookenden, Napier. Dropzone Normandy. spick-and-span York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1976 Devlin, Gerard. PARATROOPER. New York: St. Martins Press, 1979. Hooker Jr., Richard. The Airborne Division in 2010. Military Review. 81.3 (May/June 2001): 83. McCaul, Ed. 82nd airborne paratrooper at Normandy. Military History. 14.2 (June 1997): 30. If you want to get a full essay, come in it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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