Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 24, 1994 TAG: 9404240198
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO LENGTH: Short
Members of the Return to Normandy Association will be allowed to jump at the conclusion of an elaborate ceremony in France on June 5, Lt. Col. Alfred Lott said Friday at the Pentagon.
"We are all excited and pleased that the Pentagon has finally . . . blessed us to do it," said Max Gurney, a sergeant during the war. "We will jump right after the young ones."
For liability reasons, the Pentagon was reluctant to have the aging vets join young troops. It demanded the older men - all in their late 60s to mid 80s - practice first.
They did in February. After two days of retraining, the 33 men suited up and vaulted out of a plane at 3,000 feet, landing safely in a muddy San Diego field.
The D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944, ended with about 2,500 Allied soldiers dead and 8,500 wounded.
by CNB