The Airborne Soldier

Its too bad Col Weeks passed away and didn't get to see the current revival in Airborne forces. At the time of the book, the West was beginning to resurge against communist expansion and NATO Airborne troops played the critical role in winning the Cold War beginning in Grenada in 1983.Weeks shows how parachute operations by the Germans were hindered by their parachute's inability to be steered and the small opening of their JU52 aircraft which limited them to only jumping with pistols and grenades, their main weapons were dropped by separate containers. A lot of the fatalism attached to Parachute assaults comes from this handicap the Germans had to overcome on the still successful taking of the island of Crete. They used containers with wheels that could be towed as carts. Allied Airborne forces had better parachutes and larger jump doors and their Airborne Soldiers jumped ready to fight with all their equipment--a practice that continues to this day. The author, a British Para officer explains the major Airborne events leading up to the early 1980s and how the equipment of the modern Airborne Soldier has improved steadily such that old assumptions of the difficulties should be rethought. Reading Weeks you are challenged to write the next chapter in Airborne history and create fully mobile maneuver forces after 3-D maneuver inserted into the battlefield. He notes that helicopter-mobile units are 3-D capable continuously but are difficult to get to the battlefield quickly like Airborne units flying from fixed-wing jets can. To somehow combine the two capabilities would be the culmination of the Airborne deal, and something within our grasp.