other replacements and the seasoned veterans were ready to board C-47s for the brief flight over the English Channel to Holland.  

The nineteen-year-old soldier's thoughts turned to his family and friends in Iowa. Just sixteen months earlier, he had graduated from high school in West Chester. He was a farm boy at heart, having grown up on a family farm just a few miles west of Washington [Iowa]. His parents and sister were still there, knowing little of what he was about to face. His girlfriend had just graduated from West Chester and was in her first year of college. 

The soldiers of the 82^nd Airborne Division had just learned that this jump was to be made about 70 miles behind the German front lines into occupied Holland. Their goal was to capture the bridge at Nijmegen as part of Operation Market-Garden, the allied offensive to capture and hold five bridges over major waterways. The day was Sunday Sept. 17, 1944. The C-47s were small by today's standards, each plane carried a "stick" of 18 paratroopers. The paratroopers were to go out the plane's door at an altitude of 300--500 feet. This way they would get to the ground quickly, lessening their chances of being shot on the way down. Unfortunately the planes started taking ground fire after crossing the English Channel and the pilots climbed to higher altitudes.  Feeling the planes gaining altitude did not meet well with the troopers inside. Soon the order came to "stand up and hook up."  

In a few seconds the young paratrooper took the biggest step of his life.  It was a good feeling to feel the sharp jerk as his main chute deployed.  Around him he could hear the boom of antiaircraft guns shooting at the planes.  He felt something hit his body but he did not feel any pain (he later found a piece of antiaircraft shrapnel embedded in the stock of his carbine).

His first impression of Holland was that it was very hard as he landed.  At least he was on the ground alive and with no broken bones. He quickly got out of his parachute harness and started looking for the other members of his platoon so they could get organized into a fighting unit, ready to meet the unknown challenges ahead.