WWII paratrooper reunited with his helmet after 60 years

[Black_Sheep]

Interesting story about the 517 P.I.R. in France with some very cool historic details. 

Edited April 23, 2022 by Black_Sheep

[BrianK]

I guess it would have been a privilege to have known him. Why is my keyboard so blurry and why are my eyes leaking? I'd have given my right nut to have known him. 

THOSE folks we owe so much to!

FWIW, That was the same sort of chinstrap we used from '70-'73. I'm betting that's where it came from. It worked fine!

In the pic' with them standing in the plane I don't know about stress, that's the narrators take.  I was in that position and we just had things to attend to, Stress? I would go to sleep on the plane before a jump. Others would joke. One character on one jump took out a baggie of vegetable soup, acted like he puked in it and then drank it.  But they weren't combat jumps. I doubt any of us would have acted different in a combat jump since each jump put our lives on the line (and we got paid combat pay) and we all had our mental escapes. Just do what we were trained to do and come out OK, and look out for each other. Prejump commands had that built in.

edit: thanks for that video!

Edited April 23, 2022 by BrianK

[BrianK]

What a ridiculous forum that times out on an edit!

Here's the rest that should have been above. No wonder the forum is failing. A jackass was a member and his effect has continued to be an issue. Insanity! By all means, assume all of us are the same as the jackass. I'll tolerate it for a short time until heads are pulled out of asses.

edit: thanks for that video!

BTW, while today we may have forgotten what we did for the French in WW2, as of '70 they didn't. Our platoon visited Normandy in '71 and the ladies at the Airborne museum in St. Mere Eglise nearly soiled their panties. It's a small farming town, so read nothing into that, good folks. My point is that the French 50 years ago were grateful for what we did. I gather that they still are today from what I've seen. But they are our people (1 of the 12 tribes, melting pot? Yeah for the 12 tribes). What a shame that we had to fight! And for what!?? Satan at work, nothing more.

[dpete]

9 hours ago, BrianK said:

 

No wonder the forum is failing. A jackass was a member and his effect has continued to be an issue. Insanity! By all means, assume all of us are the same as the jackass.

 

@BrianK   On the contrary.  This forum isn't failing in the least.  This group of yahoos come from all walks of life and various degrees of experience, and many things hold us all together and keep us coming back.  One is the wealth of knowledge that is freely given if the requester of said knowledge is respectful of others and the rules, another is that we can actually get to know one another.  Quite a few of us have met in person.  @98Z5V organizes 2 shoots in AZ that people have travelled hundreds of miles or cross country to attend, and we have 1 here in WI .  Can you say the same for any other internet gun forum?

I got here long after the "jackass" incident and feel the policy is completely warranted.  Why should someone be able to act like a comlete dolt, disrespect others who have given advice freely that cost them money to learn, and then insult those same guys for giving that advice when it doesn't agree with their preconceived notions that are often wrong, THEN be able to deny it ever happened by deleting or changing the posts in question? 

If someone makes a fool of himself and gets insulting because he got butthurt for being called on it, it SHOULD stay public for all to see. 

No assumptions of jackassery are ever made here.  We let the person prove it themselves over time.  Some times that time period is very short.

You came here looking for information.  We've given what we thought might help.  I've personally provided info you specifically asked for.  This is a closeknit group of guys that can truely call one another brother and friend.

[BrianK]

4 hours ago, dpete said:

If someone makes a fool of himself and gets insulting because he got butthurt for being called on it, it SHOULD stay public for all to see. 

There is that. But the solution is really simple, that's what quoting a post is for. Once it's in someone elses post it can't be edited out by the butthurt person. It's pretty simple to quote a post.

The reason I wrote what I did was because I had to leave my computer in the middle of an edit and it timed my edit out so that I had to post again. I really dislike people who do that (Look at me! Look at me!) and I was forced to be what I dislike. On other forums I can go back days later with more data so that it doesn't look as though I'm looking for attention.

Oh well. Here I have to do that. 

Sorry I wrote about the forum failing. But what gave me that impression is that I think I saw forums that hadn't had a new post in years. Maybe it was somewhere else. BTW, could you read the frustration in my post? 🙂

[DNP]

Just so you know…I don’t think anyone here would think you’re trying to be some sort of post whore for having back to backs. The timing out is a little different than the edit issue. I don’t know how long they can add to that, but another poster here who regularly has lengthy posts has adopted writing the post in another place…word, notepad, whatever…when he knows he’s about to go on a long one. Then it’s copy/paste when it’s done.  While I agree, that’s just a work around to a silly issue…it works. 
 

 

[unforgiven]

19 hours ago, Black_Sheep said:

Interesting story about the 517 P.I.R. in France with some very cool historic details. 

That's great brother keep them coming. God bless our Veterans and our Troops 🇺🇸