Attack by the Friendlies

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Attack by the Friendlies - Now that I have become one of those old-timers, it is OK for me to think back to a time when I was not yet at such a lamentable stage. I thought back to a memorable day in 1959 or so to when the U.S Army's 82nd Airborne Division attacked our outfit. We were tasked with handling patients who had various medical problems - broken bones, headaches, hangovers, venereal diseases, plus air evacuations of wounded troops from afar - basically the stuff we encountered as medics on our small base. The military, being a gathering place of military geniuses, decided that we were woefully unprepared for invasions and the like, so they arranged for a contingent of the 82nd Airborne Division to jump onto us and teach us how attacks might come to us from on high. Taking kindly to the notion that friendly attacks are much superior to attacks by fierce enemies, we set up to receive our "invasion" at the drill field that lay next to our aircraft runway, the place where our air evac planes landed with their sick and wounded passengers. We even set up a large viewing grandstand for the comfort of our officer staff. The rest of us stood around at the edges of the drill field to receive the demonstration. Here they came, a great number of 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers. Whole streams of them, leaping out of their aircraft over our heads. As each parachute popped open, we could hear the voice of our squadron's flight surgeon, "A_ shole, a_ shole, a_ shole ,,," This went on, causing our enjoyment of the demonstration to markedly increase with each opening parachute, hundreds of the things. Then it happened. The attack became really vicious. They dropped a big jeep vehicle right onto the viewing stand. The miracle was that there was only a single injury caused by this jeep-bombing. One of our nurses sprained her ankle running away from the reviewing stand when it became apparent that the paratroopers had aimed a jeep vehicle directly at the reviewers seated in the grandstand. * * * * * * * * * * Image source: Paratrooper drop from my Media Graphics CD * * * * * * * * * *