BoB #3

This was not combat, but it was as close as the Army could make it. The manoeuvres held in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana from June 5to July 15, 1943, combined paratroopers and gliderborne troops in the largest airborne exercise to date.

On June 10, the 506th PIR officially joined the 101st Airborne Division, thus making that date the greatest date the 101st ever had. Adding the 506th noticeably raised the morale of the 101st, at least according to the men of E Company.

The manoeuvres, pitting the Red Army against the Blue Army, ranged over a wide area of backwoods hills and mountains. Easy made three jumps. Christenson remembered one of them vividly. It was hot, stifling hot inside the C-47, and the heated air rising in currents from the hills cause the plane to bob and weave. Cpl. Denver "Bull" Randleman, at the back of the stick and thus farthest from the open door, began vomiting into his helmet. The man in front took one look and lost his lunch. The process worked right up the line. Not everyone managed to vomit into his helmet; the floor was awash in vomit, the plane stank. Christenson, at the front, was hanging on, but barely. "My stomach was on the verge of rebellion... "Why don't they turn o the green light? There it is!" From behind, shouts of "Go!" "Go! Dammit, Go!" Out I went into the clean fresh air. I felt as if someone had passed a magic wand over my head and said, "Christenson, you feel great." And I did."

- Chapter 2: Stand Up and Hook Up, "Band of Brothers" by Stephen E. Ambrose.