I volunteered as a parachutist, fully realizing the hazard of my chosen service and by my thoughts and actions will always uphold the prestige, honor and high esprit-de-corps of parachute troops.
I realize that a parachutist is not merely a soldier who arrives by parachute to fight, but is an elite shock trooper and that his country expects him to march farther and faster, to fight harder, to be more self-reliant than any other soldier. Parachutists of all allied armies belong to this great brotherhood.
I shall never fail my fellow comrades by shirking any duty or training, but will always keep myself mentally and physically fit and shoulder my full share of the task, whatever it may be.
I shall always accord my superiors fullest loyalty and I will always bear in mind the sacred trust I have in the lives of the men I will accompany in to battle.
I shall show other soldiers by my military courtesy, neatness of dress and care of my weapons and equipment that I am a picked and well trained soldier.
I shall endeavor always to reflect the high standards of training and morale of parachute troops.
I shall respect the abilities of my enemies, I will fight fairly and with all my might, surrender is not in my creed.
I shall display a high degree of initiative and will fight on to my objective and mission, though I be the lone survivor.
I shall prove my ability as a fighting man against the enemy on the field of battle, not by quarreling with my comrades in arms or by bragging about my deeds.
I shall always realize that battles are won by an army fighting as a team, that I fight first and blaze the path into battle for others to follow and carry the battle on.
I belong to the finest unit in the world. By my actions and deeds alone, I speak for my fighting ability. I will strive to uphold the honor and prestige of my outfit, making my country proud of me and the unit to which I belong.
The birth of the US Airborne
No one knew, in the early morning hours of June 26, 1940, that a reputation was being born. But when First Lieutenant William T. Ryder stepped forward on that hot summer morning at Fort Benning, Georgia, and volunteered for what to many seemed like another cockeyed scheme dreamed up by the Army brass, he secured for himself a place in history. Ryder became, officially, the Army's first paratrooper.
Lt Ryder
As a First Lieutenant he commanded the first Airborne test platoon in 1940 and was the first American officer to make a parachute jump under than emergency conditions. He made jumps into both North Africa and Sicily in World War II before being transferred to the Pacific Theater and to the staff of General Douglas MacArthur. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on October 23, 1992 in a ceremony attended by two of the remaining 18 members of the original test platoon, former and present members of the 82nd Airborne Division and his widow, Muriel, who he met in the Pacific while she was serving in the Red Cross there. The real father of American Airborne warfare.
Brigadier General William Mitchell's idea :
The largest elite unit was the airborne. The first practical plans for employing parachute troops in combat were conceived in the waning months of World War I by a U.S. aviation pioneer, Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell. Mitchell proposed outfitting troops of the 1st Division with a large number of machine guns and parachuting them behind the lines on the German-held fortress city of Metz. A ground attack would be coordinated with the paratrooper assault, known as a "v
ertical envelopment." But the war ended before Mitchell's innovative plans could be tried. After the war, the concept of vertical envelopment was neglected in the United States. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, pushed ahead with large-scale airborne exercises in the 1930s. Germany took notice of the Soviet exercises and began building its own airborne program, made up of paratroopers and infantry that would ride in gliders. With the outbreak of war, the Germans successfully used paratroopers to seize critical military objectives in Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium, where a small band of paratroopers and glidermen seized Fort Eben Emael, which many had considered impregnable.
troopers ready to jump !!!
These victories spurred the creation of the U.S. airborne program, and a fifty-man test platoon was formed on June 25, 1940. On August 16, Lieutenant William Ryder became the first member of the test platoon to make a parachute jump. In one demonstration jump, the famous airborne phrase "Geronimo!" was born when Private Aubrey Eberhardt yelled it after exiting the plane. Over the next few months, parachute tactics and techniques were developed and techniques borrowed from Germany and Russia. The fledgling program expanded as volunteers formed the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion. A special élan was part of a program that stressed the role of the individual and the necessity that he be capable of fighting against any opposition. As the parachute program evolved, men were taught that they were the best, a lesson reinforced by rigorous training that had a high washout rate. Beyond the rhetoric, the troops began demonstrating their worth by smashing previous army training records.
Parachute training culminated with the individual completing five parachute jumps. The successful trooper earned the right to wear a pair of small silver jump wings designed by a young airborne officer, William Yarborough. Special leather jump boots and jump suits were also issued to paratroopers. An unofficial ceremony known as the Prop Blast, in which new paratrooper officers drank a secret concoction and toasted their success, marked the completion of airborne training. The recipe was then encoded into an old M-94 signal-encrypting device with "Geronimo" as the key word. The Prop Blast survives today.
Jumptrainig on the ground
The U.S. airborne program remained relatively small until a pivotal German airborne operation in May 1941, when the Germans captured the British-held island of Crete in the largest German airborne operation ever. Losses were enormous and Hitler was persuaded never again to launch a major airborne operation. Not privy to the magnitude of German losses, however, the U.S. command looked at Crete as a success and began building up its airborne. The buildup was led by General George C. Marshall, who foresaw large-scale American airborne operations. A Provisional Parachute Group was created along with three new battalions. After the attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into the war in December 1941, six new airborne regiments, consisting of roughly two thousand paratroopers, were authorized, and most of the men were handpicked. The first division to be activated was the 82nd, at eight thousand men about half the size of a normal army division. A cadre of men from the 82nd later was set aside for the formation of the 101st Airborne Division. The army would create three other airborne divisions, the 11th, 13th, and 17th, plus several independent battalions and regiments, such as the 509th, 517th, 550th, and 551st. The units serving in Europe eventually became part of the First Allied Airborne Army, formed in the summer of 1944.
Sgt Eagle with the helf from : 
Epilogue :
The excitement and uncertainty of the first U.S. soldiers to jump is felt as the Test Platoon forges a new weapon of war, the American paratrooper. Lieutenant Bill Ryder, leader of the Test Platoon, on August 16th, 1940 became the first American fighting man to stand in the door and jump. He was followed by Private William King, the first U.S. enlisted paratrooper. The work that followed in the next four years was amazing. Developing full-scale airborne operations while engaged in a world war required the passion and dedication of many great leaders. The names are legendary; John Ward, Bud Miley, Bill Yarborough, Red King and Bill Donovan only begin the distinguished list. North Carolina native Major General William C. Lee would come to be known as "the Father of the Airborne."
