They Taught us to Look at the Horizon.

I think I had 17 jumps. It’s not actually jumps. They call it jumps. You get in the door, you take a position the way they train you. You have one hand on each side of the door, you have one foot in the door, and one foot back. And when the green, when the light flips from red to green, you let go and step out. You don’t jump, you just step out. And the prop blast grabs you and away you go. And you go down about 75 or 100 feet and your chute opens and you’ve got a big umbrella over you. I remember that training so well. They taught us to look out at the horizon. If you look down, you were inclined to jump, or, inclined to dive, I should say, and you’d be all tangled up in your lines. I did it once. The injuries used to be when, on the landing. We had some broken legs and broken ankles, and a broken back and so on, but I didn’t have any injuries in the paratroops, or in the landings. It was quite an experience. At that time we were the only outfit. There weren’t that many qualified paratroopers.

We had great training. I had eight straight weeks of airborne, or, advanced infantry training after I got my paratroop wings. We had this advanced infantry and it was good training. And I figured I had a fair chance and I thought I was fairly fit in a way. I was in pretty good shape. I weighed about 150 in those days, I think. I was only a 130 and some when I joined up, but I put on some weight. The only drawback I had in those days, I was addicted to tobacco. I smoked, and that affected my wind. I didn’t have sense enough to quit. Didn’t realize how it hurt. I quit in 1964, thank God. But I guess I felt as prepared for war as the rest of the boys that were going. I was scared. And any Veteran that tells you he wasn’t scared, he’s either crazy or lying to you. Any Veteran that was in action was scared, really scared. And on the jumps we were scared. But, will power it took mainly and I had that. We had some guys quit and washed out. I hesitated on the first jump, and the jump master with the bullhorn, he said “Barron, jump” or whatever he called me. He said, “You hesitated. Now,” he said, “ if you hesitate again, you’ll be washed out.” I never hesitated again. I made my other four jumps and didn’t hesitate. It was will power. But when you get in that door and look out at 1500 feet, it’s pure terror, it is.