Monument honors 440th Airlift Wing

[Pete]

Monument honors 440th Airlift Wing

http://fayobserver.com/articles/2011...26914?sac=Home

"A line of stone monuments behind the Airborne & Special Operations Museum honors numerous and historic airborne and special operations Army units.

But until Friday afternoon, none honored the Air Force and Army airmen who flew those units to war zones since World War II..................... "

&

".........The stone displays the 440th's history by noting that its first airdrop was of the 101st Airborne Division during the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion, and its mottos: "Never Unprepared" and "Putting the Air in Airborne - Since 1943."..............."

Very cool Pete, thanks for posting.

[The Reaper]

After the performance of the airlifters on the morning of June 6, 1944, I am not sure I would want to call attention to that history.

Some were good, but most were not.

I guess that was the origin of "the world is a drop zone" and "we guarantee you will land. Somewhere."

TR

[Pete]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

.........I guess that was the origin of "the world is a drop zone" and "we guarantee you will land. Somewhere."

TR

Well, the developer of AWADS in the 70's made those phrases an art form while dropping SF troops.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Pete

Well, the developer of AWADS in the 70's made those phrases an art form while dropping SF troops.

No CARP for us.

GMRS all the way.

TR

[Pete]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

No CARP for us.

GMRS all the way.

TR

Adverse Weather Air Delivery System (AWADS) was so bad it took longer to round up the jumpers after the jump than it did to roust them out of the barracks on a foggy night, run them out to Green Ramp, give them the pre jump stuff, chute up, JMPI, load the plane, fly around a while and then drop - hopefully somewhere near the Ft Bragg DZs.

It was run like a detail sort-of. Everyone knew if they were a jumper or support. When the weather got shitty you knew you were going to get the call. Riggers hated it also. Tore up a lot of chutes. Only good thing is I never remembered a great number of jumpers for any operation. IIRC it was less than 20.

The problem for the individual jumper was you couldn't see any other jumpers and when you hit the ground you didn't have the slightest idea which way to go.

When I jumped I was lucky in that I always found somebody else fairly quickly and was able to find a trail - and then shorty a jeep running around.

I was on the DZ party the night the conversation on the ground with the A/C went something like "They're out?" "Are you sure?" "Shit, I don't even hear the A/C." We were looking for guys and chutes well into the next afternoon.

I think they practiced with SF for a few months and then tried a few larger operations with the 82nd. Never heard anything about it after that.

Would have to get an Air Force type from the day to explain how AWADS tied into CARP. The big difference was with AWADS you couldn't see crap.

Have used CARP on Blind or Area DZs but yes, much prefer GMRS.