Tuesday's seminar was small, with about 30 participants, which could not be compared to the previous day's academic seminar on "Army Establishment Reform." Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThe seminar was attended by nearly 200 people. Several bigwigs in charge of the establishment, personnel, training, and operational planning of the War Department and the General Staff Department were all present, and representatives of the headquarters of various arms of the armed forces, various group armies, and various military academies and academies also attended the meeting.

Even Marshall's predecessor, Marlin Craig, who had recently been writing at home, attended the seminar as a personal representative of General Pershing (Craig retired in 1939 and was historically returned to active duty in September 1941 as chairman of the Army Reserve Forces Committee).

In addition to General McNair (on behalf of the General Staff Combat Training Department), the Infantry Bureau of the War Department, and the responsible persons of the Army Air Corps, there were only some experts and scholars from the West Point Military Academy, the Virginia Military Academy, the Southern California Fortress Military Academy, the University of Norwich, the Vallefogo Military Academy, the Fort Benning Infantry School, the Fort Leavenworth Military Academy, and the Army Staff College, as well as representatives of the 503 Brigade.

Since yesterday's meeting ended, Major General McNair's secretary, George, followed Craig and his party back to Washington. Today, John is attending the seminar as the conference secretary.

Before the meeting began, Major General McNair took John to visit several well-known scholars who had come to attend the meeting, and also "showed" his new disciples to them by the way. One of the professors, from the University of Norwich, who had lived in Qingdao, China, in his early years, was intrigued by John's retranslation of The Art of War and dragged him through to the beginning of the meeting.

Since the United States has only just begun its research on airborne operations, many issues are still in the stage of exploration. In addition to some scholars who spoke according to the established agenda of the conference and introduced their latest theoretical research results. Most of the time, everyone mainly discussed the practical problems encountered by the 503rd Brigade in the training process.

This time, General William Lee, as the head of the "Air Infantry" program, brought more than 30 questions to the meeting. The contents include the personnel establishment, training methods, weapon allocation, tactical principles, logistics supply, communications support, and other aspects of the airborne troops. John, the secretary of the conference who was in charge of recording meeting minutes, was so tired that he was about to break his hands when he hadn't learned shorthand.

When the meeting was adjourned at noon, John had time to talk to Gavin. At this time, he was dining with several other officers of the 503rd Brigade in the small cafeteria of the military academy cafeteria.

"Hello, Gavin." John walked over with a plate: "I didn't expect you to come to the meeting too." ”

"Hello, John!" Gavin hurriedly got up and greeted John, and then he introduced several of his colleagues to John: "This is Lieutenant Colonel Willis, the chief airborne training officer of our 503rd Brigade. This is Captain Hink, the training staff officer of the 501st Battalion. He is the ace parachutist of our brigade, and in the afternoon there will be a keynote speech on paratrooper training. ”

"Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Willis. Hello, Captain Zink. John greeted them warmly, especially with the captain named Zink. He recognized it at a glance, this guy was Colonel Zink, the commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division and the 506th Regiment during World War II. After the hit of "Band of Brothers", the long-deceased three-star lieutenant general was also picked up by enthusiastic netizens, and his photos can often be seen in major military forums.

While John looked at Zink curiously, Gavin had already begun to introduce him to Willis and the others: "This is the assistant chief of the Operations Planning Division of the General Staff, Colonel Vanderbilt. ”

Because John was wearing a cadet uniform without military rank, Willis and Zink didn't expect that this young officer, who looked no more than thirty years old, turned out to be a colonel, and hurriedly got up and saluted: "Hello, sir!" It's an honor to meet you! ”

"All sit, all sit." John returned the salute and beckoned everyone to sit down again: "I am a cadet now, and today you are guests, and I have been sent by Dean McNair to serve you. ”

His words made both Willis and Zink relax a lot, and with Gavin threading the needle through it, they soon became acquainted. John had also jumped a few parachutes when he was in the flying club before, and he had been sad about the problem of airborne operations lately. Their topic quickly turned to the first round of live jump training that the 503 Brigade was currently underway.

"The idea of shortening the delivery time is the right one." John first affirmed Gavin's opinion: "The faster the paratroopers are dropped, the smaller the scattered area of the landing, and the more conducive it is to quickly assemble forces and form combat effectiveness." But at this stage, it is clearly impossible to produce a modified transport aircraft specifically for the Airborne Forces. However, I remember that the large hatch on the left side of the rear fuselage of the C-47 was large enough for two people to pass through in parallel. ”

"But if the two of them go out of the cabin at the same time, it is easy to have a collision in the air under the influence of the wind." Gavin is not without thinking about the problem of two people going out of the cabin at the same time.

Indeed, even in later generations, military transport aircraft generally adopted the tail rear compartment door design in order to carry large vehicles and equipment. However, when paratroopers parachute out, they generally go out of the cabin in turn to avoid accidents.

However, in order to solve this problem, the Chinese airborne troops in later generations had a local method -- two formations alternately out of the cabin. That is, the paratroopers are lined up in two queues, left and right, alternating with each other and leaving the cabin in turn. This way of exiting the cabin will be much faster than the sequential exit of a single queue, and a well-trained airborne unit can reduce the interval between two paratroopers to about 0.8 seconds. When the two paratroopers are in free fall, 0.8 seconds is enough to stretch the distance between the two to more than 10 meters, and there is no danger of collision in the air.

John told Gavin and the others about this "trick", and Lieutenant Colonel Willis was very interested, but Gavin and Zink, who had been dealing with grassroots paratroopers for a long time, were embarrassed. This method is simple to say, but it requires a very high degree of teamwork and is not easy to operate. Later generations of Chinese paratroopers also practiced this "unique skill" through a lot of rigorous training.

It is really hard to say whether the Chinese paratroopers, who are still known for their strict organization and discipline and tacit teamwork, can be trained by these American GIs who flaunt their individuality and advocate freedom. Maybe in the end, the tiger won't be an anti-dog.

"Why don't you go back and find a company to try it out and see how it works?" Gavin had some doubts about John's suggestion, but did not want to dismiss his face, so he suggested it to Lieutenant Colonel Willis.

At present, everything is still being explored by the American Airborne Forces, and there is no formed training method. This kind of "trivial matter", Willis, as the chief training officer of this experimental force, can directly make a decision. He thought for a moment, nodded, and said to Captain Zinke, "I think it's better to pick a company from your 501st battalion." Which company do you think is suitable? ”

"Company C, the company of Jones (Captain, who later served as the commander of the 503rd Independent Paratrooper Regiment) is the best training in the battalion." With a groan, Sinker made a decision. If even C Company can't master this new method, then the other companies have no choice but to find another way.