This weekend, I was honored to take part in the airborne jumps up in Xenia, Ohio to celebrate the 100th birthday of Jim "PeeWee" Martin, WW2 paratrooper of the 101st Airborne. There were three original WW2 warbirds on hand to drop almost 100 paratroopers, the legendary C-47 "That's All, Brother" which I jumped into Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, there was the C-47 "Placid Lassie" and the C-53 "D-Day Doll". All planes flew combat operations in WW2 including D-Day. Present at the celebration was of course Jim Martin, Vince Speranza (machine gunner famous for serving his fellow soldiers beer out of his steel pot helmet during battle in Bastogne), Tom Rice, Dan McBride, Dick Klein, Bob Izumi and Al "Doc" Blaney. These men are the last living members of the 501st PIR, 101ABN. It was a HUGE honor to meet these men, share a cigar and sing Blood On The Risers with Vince Speranza, and jump with such esteemed paratroopers from all over the country. The last picture is of Jim standing with the US Army Golden Knights parachute team.
