The e-mail sent to you at 7:16 PM EDT June 5, exactly seventy five years since the first pathfiders jumped:
0016 hrs : The first pathfinders of the 101st Airborne jump over Normandy, led by Captain F. LILLYMAN, to mark their division's drop zones. DZ "A" to the west of St Martin-de-Varreville for the 502nd PIR; DZ "C" north of Hiesville for the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 506th PIR and the 3/501st PIR; DZ "D" to the east of Angoville-au-Plain for the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 501st PIR and the 3/506th PIR and LZ "E" for the gliders of missions "Chicago" and 'Keokuk" scheduled between 0400 hrs and 2100 hrs. The C-47s carrying the division are supposed to arrive 30 minutes after the first pathfinders land.
In six hours, my father would be down in a ditch at dawn watching Maxwell Taylor eat his C Rations. "You better get down here with me, General" said the sire. "Those aren't bees buzzing round." "Relax, Braden, generals never get killed".
L
