
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994                   TAG: 9406060075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE, FRANCE                                LENGTH: Medium

D-DAY VETS DEFY AGE, WINDS TO JUMP AGAIN

Parachute failure made for a hard landing for one U.S. veteran and capricious winds pushed others miles off course Sunday, re-creating some of the problems they faced in their D-Day drop that freed the first village in France.

Across the English Channel, a flotilla set sail for Normandy as the weather finally broke - just as it did 50 years ago - providing sunny skies for the thousands commemorating the start of history's greatest amphibious invasion.

At least two of the veteran paratroopers were injured in Sunday's jump in Normandy, neither seriously. One had his cords tangle on the way down, forcing him to use his smaller, emergency chute.

Most of the 41 veterans - ranging from their late 60s to early 80s - described the jump as a piece of cake, despite shifting winds and their age.

"When you make a combat jump, you come out at 900 [feet], you're loaded down with ammunition, it's night and somebody's shooting at you," said Everett Hall, 74, of Kingston, R.I. "Why be afraid today?"

Elsewhere in Normandy, 1,100 British, Canadian, Australian and Polish paratroopers jumped at Ranville, where the first house liberated in France was filled Sunday with celebrating Britons.

Despite the mishaps, the veterans were elated over returning to where many of them landed 50 years ago in the opening hours of D-Day, blocking Nazi reinforcements.

"I'm overcome by the love of the people and the way they greeted us," said Harold Taylor, 74, of Huntsville, Ala., who made his first trip back since D-Day. "I can't say anymore," he said, choked up with emotion.

by CNB