Hearing a twenty-something Montanan say "Heil Hitler" in a low voice as he passed by me on my daily walk stunned me. I came to realize that someone had filled a blind spot in his head about World War II with a Big Lie. I concluded our younger generations do not understand what my post-war generation considers obvious. To bring attention to the defeat of fascism by allied forces during World War II, I decided to jump from a C-47/DC-3 to help re-enact the breaching of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall on D-Day 75 years ago.
Since then a fellow baby-boomer, Donald Trump, has used the people's Presidential pulpit to label and demean anti-fascists (ANTIFA) as a terrorist organization, and my own plan, which had started with great determination, ended differently than I expected.
In August 2018 I bought off of eBay $879 worth of parachuting gear that met re-enactment standards. I then sent a copy of my passport, my parachute jumping credentials and a completed British Parachute Association “fitness to parachute” medical form to the DAKS Over Normandy organization. After a physical examination a Veterans Administration physician signed the medical form. Though placed on a jumper wait list, I was told not to send my 679 British pounds for participation in the Commemoration, until moved up to the active jump list. Meanwhile, I spent November, December, January and February, springing side-to-side over metal logs and practicing Parachute Landing Falls from park benches and picnic tables into snowbanks. As the expected date of a required refresher jump approached I asked my oldest daughter to come over to England, and France, to watch. She had been asking to go with me to Ireland and stuck to her guns. I intensively pestered the administrators in England enough that they told me my chances of getting a seat on the limited number of aircraft was unlikely. Disappointed, in early May I resold my “Parachute, Main 35-ft round MC1-1D, MIPRS reserve, harness, D-bag, 15-ft static line and clip, with complete rigging manual” on eBay for $845, and was glad to learn the buyer was someone already on the re-enactment's active jump list.
So, on the day of the jump I found myself watching from a ferry-boat as a Bottlenose Dolphin leaped about the River Shannon. I was awaiting the arrival of one of my daughters and one of my grandsons. The Shannon Dolpin turned out to be a grand ending to an honest effort, and an auspicious beginning to a wonderful trip around Ireland.
If you have time on the web-version of this post to watch this video you'll see my ANTIFA parachute. It's green and round with a non-violent ANTIFA patriot hanging under it.
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