D-Day related posts used to be a tradition for me on June 6th, back at the Two-Fisted Blog. I just found out, according to an online article dated in 2014, that Division was slated to be taken off Airborne status–so I’m assuming this has already happened.

Sometime between the end of the Vietnam experience and when I joined up, the 101st Division had been taken off Airborne status–though they retained the “Airborne” tab above the unit patch. Now it’s evidently happened to my alma mater, too. I don’t know if the Rangers will follow suit. I doubt if SF will.

Both divisions (the 82nd and 101st) dropped into Normandy (or came down in gliders) the night before the invasion of Hitler’s “Fortress Europe,” in a brief window of acceptable weather in 1944. Despite a massive gaggle in which almost no units were put out over their drop zones, the Airborne caught the Germans by surprise and secured crucial bridgeheads on the causeways leading out from the invasion beaches.

Paratroopers were bad dudes, but not quite the gang of murderers and rapists that Nazi propaganda chalked them up to be. By the time I came along, the standards in Jump School were plummeting to accommodate the inclusion of women, but there were still plenty of bad dudes in Division.

There’s been a long, gradual subversion of the Armed Forces. Patriots and bad dudes have been (probably still are being) purged from the ranks. In an Army that pays for sex change operations, where soldiers are made to wear high heels, but everyone is given a black beret, there’s frankly not much room left for bad dudes (who aren’t gender-confused, anyway). And, generals have been ragging on airborne insertion for decades–claiming it’s an obsolete and daaaaaaa-aaaangerous method to deliver troops to the battlefield.

Maybe the generals are right. Maybe the 82nd can be just as effective as another “Air-Assault” light infantry division, which is ferried-to-firefight by helicopter.

Then again, the folks in charge have reimagined the military as a huge, publicly funded, gender-confused social experiment. It’s primary purpose is not to fight wars, anymore. When it fights them anyway, it’s not in the service of American interests. In such an organization, bad dudes are obsolete–probably even embarrassing.

I haven’t maintained any connection to Division. Never went to any of the reunions, even though I was coerced to join the Association when I served there. Last time I drove through North Carolina, my route took me close to Bragg, but I didn’t even bother to detour there to see what the new barracks look like.

But this kinda’ bums me out, anyway. Enjoy the photos.