As John returns to Fort Leavenworth from Washington, a group of Army soldiers are waiting in a hangar at Rosen Military Airport to meet one of the key tests of their lives, thousands of miles away at Fort Benning. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

These fighters were all elites carefully selected by General William Lee from all units of the Army. The vast majority of them had received more than a year of rigorous military training. After arriving at Fort Benning, they underwent 1 month of theoretical and ground training at this skydiving school. Today they are finally going to take to the skies and start their first real jump.

Richard was standing in the queue of Company C of the 501st Battalion, looking excitedly out of the hangar gate. At this moment, he felt that he had made the right decision to sign up for the selection of the Airborne Forces. The Airborne Forces are where men should be, and it's much more interesting than going back to school to be some kind of bullshit military instructor.

"Young Master, what time is it? When will we be able to fly? A big guy next to Richard quietly stabbed him in the arm.

"I don't know, Bison. My watch was left in the dorm room. Richard looked at the sun outside and roughly judged based on his experience in the wilderness, "I guess it's almost 10 o'clock." ”

"If I were you, I would never take that Yankee off." An Italian soldier standing on the other side of Richard whispered, "That's a 1928 marine chronograph that costs more than a thousand dollars on the black market." If you put it in the dormitory, you might be gone at some point. ”

"Whoever wants it, take it. Besides, everyone is a platoon comrade-in-arms, and how can they go to the battlefield without this trust. Richard said unconcernedly. To him, a Yankee watch was nothing, and any piece he wore was worth more than that. He chose to wear this watch to join the army because it was a classic Hamilton military watch and it was more practical.

"That's it, the eldest young master doesn't care about himself, what do you care about tomatoes." The bison muttered discontentedly.

Seeing that his two roommates were about to "quarrel" again, Richard could only sigh helplessly, bowed his head and pretended not to hear. These two people, one is from a Texas cowboy, a reckless man with nerves thicker than his arms; One is the son of an Italian restaurant owner in New York, a money addict who is better than a monkey.

When Richard first arrived, he thought that these two guys who were talking about each other all the time didn't deal with each other. Later, I learned that the two of them were comrades in the same squad when they were in the 29th Infantry Regiment, and later passed the assessment together and stayed in this experimental unit, (William Lee was the first airborne unit in the United States built with the original 29th Regiment as the skeleton), and the relationship was not ordinary iron.

Of Richard's C Company, he was the only one who came in directly from the boot camp. Just a few days. He was also worried about whether he would be discriminated against by the veterans. After all, when he was in the recruit training camp, he didn't hear many stories about the veterans in the company cleaning up the recruits.

However, fortunately, this experimental unit was newly formed, and except for the "good friends" of Bison and Tomato, the others in the company did not know each other. Before everyone could understand his details, Richard had already won the recognition of his comrades in the company through his performance on the training ground.

Although he later gave him the nickname "Big Young Master", there was no malice in calling him so. At most, when he goes to the bar to consume, he will shout for him to have a treat.

"Shut up! There's a sir! While the bison and tomato were arguing, Sergeant Andrew, the squad leader, suddenly stopped them with a sharp voice.

Richard looked up at the hangar door, and sure enough, a group of officers walked in surrounded by the general. Richard recognized it at a glance, and the tall, thin, blonde brigadier general in the middle was William Lee.

On the first day of the skydiving school, Richard met him once. I didn't expect that he would come to the scene for the first time today. The strange company commander would have hung them in this hangar for so long.

William Lee, the future "father of the Airborne Forces" of the United States, began to study airborne operations seven or eight years ago. In 1938, he submitted his "air-infantry" program to the War Department. But his plan doesn't have much market in Washington. Had it not been for the recent exertion of German counterparts on the European theater of war, which had aroused Roosevelt's interest in this new method of warfare, William Lee would still be engaged in his theoretical research in solitude.

But even with Roosevelt's support, William Lee's attempt to form an airborne force was faltering. It took the War Department half a year just to discuss whether this test unit should be assigned to the Army or the Army Air Corps. In the end, it was Stimson who made the decision and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Army Infantry Bureau.

Don't look at the current number of this experimental force is the 503rd Infantry Brigade (William Lee is a brigadier general after all, and there is no reason to be demoted to the commander of the regiment), but now the whole brigade is less than 1,600 people with clerks and cooks, which is the size of a regiment at best. It's all just William Lee who begged his grandfather and grandmother everywhere with an old face to piece it together.

Lately, William Lee has not been seen at Fort Benning very often, and has spent most of his time in Washington arguing with the old men and gentlemen, fighting for all kinds of resources and supplies for this paratrooper test unit.

Richard: The reason why they have only started their first parachute training is because William Lee only "snatched" 10 C-47s from the Army Air Corps last week. Although only 10 C-47s are far from meeting the needs of the daily training of the 503 brigade, it is still better than nothing.

Today, Richard's 501st Battalion, as the battalion with the best training performance, was the first to obtain the qualification for live jumping, creating a precedent for the first formed parachute jump in the US Army. At this historic moment, William Lee was of course personally there to cheer his men on.

After an enthusiastic speech to the officers and men of the battalion, General William-Lee, accompanied by the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ryder, and the temporary airborne communications officer, Major William, went to the airport tower. Captain James Gavin, as the training officer, will personally lead the 405 officers and men of the 501st Battalion through this parachute training.

"Wow, we can finally fly into the sky once. It's so boring to do simulation exercises on the ground all the time. After stepping into the cockpit of the C-47, Richard excitedly spoke to the bison.

"That's right, if it weren't for Tomato always talking to me about the paratrooper badge, I wouldn't want to stay in this hellish place a long time ago." The bison began to habitually "scold" tomatoes again.

"Shut up. Have this time to check your wings! I don't know if it was intentional, Gavin chose the plane that Richard was on. Everyone was usually a little afraid of this notoriously strict trainer, and when they saw him speak, they all obediently shut up and began to re-examine the umbrella that had been inspected countless times.

Amid the roar of engines, C-47s took off from Lawson Airport one after another, taking Richard with them to an altitude of 1,500 feet. Everyone was nervously waiting for the skydive lights to come on.