The Airborne School like the Ranger School, is ofcourse located at Fort Benning, GA, just outside of Columbus, GA. The Airborne School is a part of the Infantry School, which is, Fort Benning.
This is the place where I received my jump training barely 5 months before. Since then, our Ranger Company was activated and deactivated. We undertook mountain training in the Rockies, participated in Exercise Southern Pines at Fort Bragg, NC and I endured a Special Court Martial at Camp Pickett, VA. And now I was faced with a decision as to what my next step would be. I had at least three choices:
Infantry School "Follow Me" patch
One: return to my original unit, Company G of the 102nd Regiment, 43d Infantry Division and join them in a tour of duty in Germany;
Two: go to any active airborne unit within the US or Korea;
Three: be interviewed for a position at the Airborne School as an instructor.
Being married and having gone through the turmoil of not being home very much, the prospect of living at home, working a normal 8 to 5 day, brown-bagging my lunch, had a great appeal, as it did for a few others in our group. Harold Hodgkinson and I drove to Fort Benning where we both had an interview. I got an instructor assignment with the Heavy Drop Group, also known as the Air Movement Training Group. Hodgkinson got a job with the Supply Group, Bob Ladow, my cousin's husband, with the Administration Group, and our Ranger Company Commander, Captain Victor Harwood, with the Ground Training Group. One other member of our company, Herman Boldt, became the company clerk of "H" Company . "H" Company was the administrative company that all instructors of the Airborne School were assigned to. Herm Boldt became a close friend of mine. As the company clerk, all correspondence came to his attention. This was to be a boon for both of us.
Classes for the Heavy Drop course cycled through every three to four weeks. Each session lasted one week, culminating with a live heavy drop on Friday. So, we had quite a bit of free time. Of course, free time usually meant cleaning up and repairing equipment and getting things ready for the next class. Our group also conducted classes for Pathfinders and Jumpmasters. Although my particular group was primarily involved with Heavy Drop, we did assist in the other classes when needed.
It was about that time that I decided to re-enlist and make a career of the Army. I signed up for 6 years for a whopping $300 bonus. It isn't close to the thousands of dollars they offer now for re-enlistments, but back then it was quite a lot. By this time I had my own car. A 1942 Chevrolet in which we made quite a few trips up and down the coast to CT and back. Therese and I shared an apartment with a young, single girl whose name I can't remember. But I do remember the time when we went to a movie theater and I was arrested soon after as we were heading back home. I had made a left turn in front of traffic that was stopped for a red light. The light changed to green as I got to the intersection and since I was already moving, I made the turn. A cop stopped me and gave me a ticket. I was able to prove that I lived in Columbus, so he let me go with a court date. A few days later I appeared in court and was fined $15.00. I had no money and I couldn't pay the fine, so they locked me up in a cell downstairs. Therese was able to get the $15.00 from our roomie and I got out of the cell. Then just when I thought I was free, I found that the MP 's were required to pick me up and take me back to my unit. There I faced a Summary court martial a few days later. The cops that arrested me had to show up at the court martial where they had nothing but praise to say for me, so I was let go with just a reprimand. The judge excoriated the cops for harassing GIs. It's not good to be stopped by police in a GI town.
As you can see in the pictures above, preparing for heavy drops required some preparation with proper equipment. This entailed lashing the load; (be it a jeep, a truck a howitzer or just a general purpose container) to a wood pallet with quick release mechanisms; attaching one or more 100 foot diameter chutes to the pallet and securing the chute(s) to the load, then attaching a drogue (or drag) ribbon chute to the main chute, then a shot bag to the drag chute and attaching that to a tow hook at the back of the plane who's doors had been removed. In the plane, the pallet was secured to the floor of the aircraft with quick release webs to floor rings. The webs were removed after the plane was in level flight. To keep the pallet from moving about the aircraft, one web strap was left tied at the rear of the pallet with a sharp ring knife inserted into its loop. This knife was a part of the long suspension line of the parachute. When the pilot released the tow hook, it opened up and allowed the shot bag to fall free. The weight of the shot bag pulled the drag chute out which opened and pulled on the knife, which cut the loop freeing the load from the plane. The drag chute then pulled the main chute out which was attached to the pallet. With the drag chute acting as an anchor in the air, the plane pulled out from under the pallet which had been resting on roller skate conveyer belts. The main chute sitting between the drag chute (anchor) and the weight of the load falling away, the chute pulled out from its bag and deployed. When the pallet landed, the weight of the load was removed from the chute allowing a quick release mechanism to separate the chute from the load, thus preventing any wind gusts from carrying the load across the drop zone. The quick release mechanism was activated when the chute felt the weight of the load and released when the weight was relaxed. Very efficient and clever. It took but a couple of minutes for troopers on the ground to release the tie downs and just drive off the pallet. After the pallet with its load left the airplane, the conveyor belt skate wheels would sing for at least 15 minutes. That load left the plane in a hurry. Pity anyone standing in the back. There were occasions when the shot bag would get hung up and someone had to reach the tow hook with a long rod and release it. That person had to make sure his body was not in the path of the exiting pallet, because the exit was extremely fast. There was no way a plane could land safely with a pallet sitting on a hair trigger. So it had to be jettisoned. The planes were also equipped to handle smaller containers, each with their own chutes. Their static lines were attached to an overhead cable in the plane and were pulled to an opening in the floor in the front of the cargo compartment, much like clothing racks at the dry cleaners. When the containers dropped, the chutes opened. This too was a fast operation.
(See picture 3 above.) In the Spring of 1952, Herm Boldt confided in me that a request had just been issued for volunteers to attend Guided Missile School at Fort Bliss, TX, with a preparatory basic electronics course. Why he confided in me, I don't know. We were not that close at that time and we worked in different areas. Maybe he recognized my latent talent (latent and talent almost the same two words); in any case, I said yes, I was interested. He got the necessary paperwork, typed it all up and sent it forward. The notice would not be posted until our eventual acceptance. After a couple weeks we were notified that we were both approved, and were to report to The Guided Missile School for a class starting in July. This was new stuff. It had been just over 5 years since the end of WWII and the Army was experimenting with guided missiles using the technology brought over from Germany with Werner Von Braun and Co. It sounded exciting to me. I had always been fascinated with new technology and here was my chance to advance my knowledge and skills beyond just jumping from airplanes.
