All the Way! and Then Some...: a Cold Warrior's Journey

ISBN-13: 9780692803301 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 406 str.

Wayne Wood

Opis

"If you ever get the chance to jump out of an aircraft from 800 feet carrying almost 150 pounds of equipment with 2500 other guys into a crosswind gusting to 75 knots - don't try it. It's not as much fun as it sounds..." All the Way is the motto of the 82nd Airborne Division. It became Wayne Wood's creed. As a member of the elite 82nd Airborne Division in 1982, Wayne was assigned to participate in the largest Airborne Operation since World War II, Joint Training Exercise Gallant Eagle 82. What was meant to be a show of force after the humiliation of the Iran hostage crisis turned into the worst parachute disaster in the Division's history. Several hundred troopers were injured as the result of high winds that swept across the drop zone. Six died as the result of their injuries. After being dragged what was estimated as almost half a mile and sustaining severe friction burns on his hands and arms, Wayne hit a large boulder, which injured him so severely that medics, rushing to him and finding no vital signs, left him for dead in their search to help injured troopers. His doctor called him the "most seriously injured trooper" of the accident. It was a life-changing event for Wayne in many ways; he came out with a new-found relationship with God and a change in his life as he dealt with the residual effects of the accident on his health and military career as he fought to be declared a fully fit paratrooper who deployed as part of the initial 82nd Task Force sent to liberate the island of Grenada. All the Way is one soldier's story. In a time when America is gaining a new awareness of the sacrifices endured by our men and women in uniform, it tells a story of a "forgotten generation," the "Cold Warriors." It is the story of "Army people," the soldiers who fight the battles and the families who wait for them. As an Army brat during Vietnam, to standing on a frozen hillside staring at the Iron Curtain in Germany, to the windswept desert of California, to the tiny island nation of Grenada, this story can only be told by one who has seen all facets of Army life.