Brigadier General James Gavin

James Gavin was born in 1907 and joined the US Army at the age of 17. He was accepted into West Point and proved an able tactitician. Gavin literally wrote the book on US paratrooper tactics, having carefully studied German examples. He participated in all of his division’s combat jumps, earning him the nickname: ‘Jumping General’.

Brigadier General James Gavin

American sniper

Major General Maxwell Taylor

Maxwell Taylor graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1922, excelling in politics and language skills. In the interwar years Taylor rose through the ranks under the tutalage of General Matthew Ridgway, then commanding 82nd Airborne Division.
This photo was taken as the general was entering his aircraft as part of Operation Market-Garden on September 17th, 1944. It is recreated in the 1977 movie &quot;A Bridge Too Far.&quot; It is my understanding that five non-combat jumps at an airborne school (whether the US Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia or other sites set up for jump training) qualified a soldier to be airborne qualified. A soldier could also earn his jump wings by making one combat jump without attending a formal school but this was extremely rare. Back in the day, those of us fresh out of jump school were mercilessly ridiculed by the more experienced parachutists as &quot;five jump chumps&quot; or &quot;cherry jumpers&quot; (because we had just lost our cherry.) Training was the same for everyone, regardless of rank. In fact, the higher the rank, the more attention one received from the instructors: extra pushups, chinups, lowcrawling, etc.