Art, my 83-years-young adopted grandpa from Starbucks, knows my love for photography and brought in the photo of all the parachutes to show me. During the war, Art used to jump out of planes and he was the photographer for his unit. He said the photo was of the whole division doing a jump to impress a visiting foreign dignitary. He went on to tell me that they were T-10 parachutes and “the men were at the mercy of the wind back then.” A cool pic; I asked Art if I could borrow it to scan and share with my friends on Facebook. He granted my request. I showed him everyone’s reactions/comments and he beamed! The next time I saw Art, he handed me two additional parachute jump photos to scan and post. I put the scans of the photos on a flash drive for him to pass along to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He loved it!
Inspired by Art’s initial photo, my friend Christy shared this picture of her grandparents from the same era and the cool story behind it … My granddad was a paratrooper in WWII. My grandmom was a nurse and sewed her wedding dress out of one of his reserve parachutes. They got married in North Africa.