Early Paratrooper and Glider Troops Life Magazine

[swmdo]

I don't normally collect these but the topic was too good to resist.

[swmdo]

Last one

 

[Gregory]

I don't normally collect these but the topic was too good to resist.

 

The para is a Paramarine on board of Douglas R3D-2.

[swmdo]

A para marine? Awesome guess Life got it wrong in the editing process;).

[Gregory]

That R3D-2 belonged to VMJ-152. Only two R3D-2s were prepared to carry the paras.

[swmdo]

Thanks I will have to look into the history of the squadron.

[WWII Parachutist]

 

The para is a Paramarine on board of Douglas R3D-2.

Marines jumped T-4's?

[Gregory]

Here is the USMC-operated Douglas R3D-2 -- one of four used then in the VMJ-152 and one of two modernized to drop the Paramarines.

 

The pic shows exercises in the MCAS Quantico in 1942.

[Gregory]

Marines jumped T-4's?

 

Yes. See -- Blossoming Silk Against the Rising Sun: U.S. and Japanese Paratroopers at War in the Pacific in World War II book.

[1SG_1st_Cav]

Nice magazines!

[WWII Parachutist]

 

Yes. See -- Blossoming Silk Against the Rising Sun: U.S. and Japanese Paratroopers at War in the Pacific in World War II book.

 

I realize Gene Salecker's book may say they used the T-4 (also says T-5), but it is a history, not a technical analysis. I don't mean to argue, but I don’t see anything that indicates this isn’t an early Army paratrooper.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the R3D-2 has 4 circular windows – these windows are obviously rectangular, characteristic of the C-39’s and B-18’s in use by the Army airborne during training in mid-1941.

I pulled out the original magazine, which has the article on pages 110-114. Page 22 has a short segment about the trooper on the front cover, who is named as Pfc Hugh Randall, a Texan farmer who joined in 1936. This same individual is listed on the December 1940 rosters of Company C, 501st Parachute Battalion.

Plus, it doesn’t make any sense for a Marine to be jumping a T-4, especially at this date. The Marines had their own chute, the dual purpose, which they used extensively (the dual purpose is the chute in the above picture you posted). The T-4 was developed for the Army, and production was so slow that it could never keep up with the minimum demand for training requirements. In fact, although the actual parachute drops in the 1941 movie Parachute Battalion used T-4’s, most of the other shots used equipment made by the prop department – there weren’t enough T-4s to spare.

I’m not a marine expert, but I do know parachutes. I need more definitive evidence to be convinced though.

[gliderman1]

The Life War Glider is a publicity photo made at Wright Field or Clinton County Army Air Field, Wilmington, Ohio. The glider is the one and only XCG-3 with Glider Branch enlisted men posing as crew and riders. The driver is T/Sgt Robert Bange who was not a glider pilot. Pre-war, civilian, Bange crewed for National Soaring Champion Chet Decker (1Lt) who was assigned to the Glider Branch at Wright/CCAAF. Decker was a glider test pilot and a power, tug pilot in the Glider Branch. Decker and Robert Cardenas (BGen, USAF, Ret) were Col. Dent's favorite glider and tug pilots in the Glider Branch.