W.W.II Airborne Demonstration Team "Remembers, Honors, & Serves"

Reported by: Katie Crosbie

Saturday, Jan 26, 2008 @07:10pm CST

One group remembered the sacrifices of World War Two veterans today ... by jumping out of a plane. The W.W.II Airborne Demonstration Team in Frederick, Oklahoma, had a jump school graduation and open hangar today. Organizers say this is the only group of its kind in the country. They're all here on a mission: To remember, honor, and serve. And that sentiment takes on personal meaning for Gregory Semanoff. "My father was a paratrooper in the Second World War -- D-Day, he jumped France, he jumped into Holland, and then he was wounded in Baston. I grew up with it, and it's just in the blood - it's a heritage thing." Both of Semanoff's sons, Mike and Joseph, joined the World War II Airborne Demonstration Team. During training, before their first jump, Dad passed on a special keepsake: “It was my grandfather’s parachute that he wore into combat,” said Mike Semanoff. "I turned around in the plane and I could see the tears welling up in their eyes -- it was a very touching moment,” Gregory said. “I felt like I had my father with me." Dad and Mike jumped together ... While Joseph waited at the drop zone. “They start the C-47 up -- it just stands your hair up on end,” Gregory said. “You go out that door and hit that blast … to be under a canopy and try to remember and feel what it was like, jumping out at night with flak going off and tracers coming up ...” Ralph K. Manley knows that feeling all too well. In the early morning of D-Day, he jumped from a C-47 onto Normandy. He remembers meeting General Dwight Eisenhower just before boarding the plane in England: "He said, 'You are about to embark on a great crusade, and I wish you good luck.’ And we shook hands, and oh gosh, that psyched me up enough … I was ready to take on the whole German army by myself!” Manley said. So he came from Springfield, Missouri to tell his story. "I just want young people to learn that freedom isn't really free,” Manley said. “It's here because again the sacrifices and dedication of people … of young people.” And that freedom shines through as these jumpers soar from the plane. “When that jumpmaster says go, you run toward the door, and all that built up excitement … you go, and it’s just free … just that freedom and excitement – ‘Woohoo! I'm alive!’" To learn more about this group, click here . For more information about World War II veteran Ralph K. Maley’s book, click here.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman