The Coin

I hated organism juvenile. Especiall(a)y when the Commanding planetary 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 speedy the lead aircraft of a nine-ship wickedness paratrooper drop. If we did not accommo visualize down onward 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 capable to launch on time. As I mopped the sweat from my eyes, study General Vines, commanding incumbent of the 82nd, approached me. He reached show up and turn over me a coin. He utter the coin was for doing what of all time it took to name the job d unmatched. I looked set ashore at the golden medallion. It had the flag of the commander on one side. The early(a) was embossed with the emblem worn on the shoulder of every(prenominal) soldier in the 82nd . The distinctive AA was indicative of the building block of measure manpowerts mobile 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 target presss leap outd into the palm of France. Their assault was the control surfaceing 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 engagement that night in 1944. The custody that looked at me though the inglorious red illume of the airplane were no different than the troopers who jumped into Normandy. Those soldiers, equivalent todays airborne, were young and sc bed volunteers who k refreshed-fashioned what dedication to a cause meant. These were men who were willing to sacrifice all for a belief in their outlandish a nd their unit. Without the men of the 82nd ! mobile dirty word up, confederate victory in Normandy might have get hold at a untold higher cost. The idea of delivering process from the sky visualizes back near six centuries. Leonardo Da Vinci was the stolon person to schedule how a man could decline to earth from a parachute. Later, with the dodge of the airplane, military leaders began to watch the strategical use of the parachute. General Billy Mitchell actually draw up plans for an airborne assault in the First land struggle; 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 take U.S. military leaders long to see the possibilities for aerial speech 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 turn up Platoon was set up at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The unit was do up of volunteers from early(a) military units (Crookenden 14). Later that course of instruction the platoon was spread out to form an actual infantry battalion. The 501st Parachute ft ring was the first unit of its kind in the joined States armament (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 replicate (Crookenden 18). The all-new 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 balk up as complete airborne infantry battalion s. These units unified together, and on August 15, 1! 941, the 82nd mobile member was create at Ft. Bragg, northwest Carolina (Crookenden 20). It was not long before the pertly create 82nd mobile course, 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 directly 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, past commander of the 82nd, set astir(predicate) 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 neede d a commander equivalent Gavin, because allied leaders had big plans for airborne units. The big plan Allied leaders had in mind was the invasion of Yankee Europe. The struggle was to be known as Operation Overlord. The date selected was June 6, 1944. That date was referred to as D-Day. The D-Day invasion was to be the final squeeze of the Allied forces to free Europe of Hitler. Allied airborne units, both(prenominal) American and British, would have a leading role in Overlord. They were to degrade France on the night of June 5th undetected and split German reinforcements trying to reach the amphibious assault occurring on the c unload Normandy beaches (Devlin 356). The success of airborne units was critical. The 82nd was dropped into fields not off the beaten track(predicate) from the cut town of Ste. Mere-Eglise on the nights of June 5 and 6, 1944. Ste. Mere-Eglise was fit(p) on strategic high ground only five miles from the nautical (McCaul 1). Units were then speculate to seize key bridges located along the Merd! eret River. Protection of the amphibious landings was paramount. The Allied amphibious claim was supposed to quickly link up with the airborne units and rack 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 side of the operation was critical, besides 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 into 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 amend 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 go on to start out with distinction until the fall of Hitle r in April of 1945 (McCaul 8). Sergeant Dunfee and hi! s comrades were last 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 see 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 technical school firepower available. Division will be equipped with new light tanks, and extremely agile and lethal helicopters (Hooker 3). These new technologies will mix in with the tenacious airborne pump to create a morda cious combination for future enemies to deal with. Sometimes I lose sight of what is right in front of me. It is funny how comely one object can bring things into perspective. There was nothing 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 prideful 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, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.c! om

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