George Jackson, 326th Airborne Engineering Battalion

[vette97]

Thanks for the suggestions as I made sure to ask these questions. It's going to take some time to get this video ready for upload but I got some answers to your specifics and want to share them. Now, this is based on his memory, and that's a long time ago, so other vet stories may not match. According to George, they didn't jump with anything extra, no extra clothes just their gear, 2 chutes, etc. He only jumped during training, none in Britain and none into Europe (flew in on a glider). There wasn't really much discipline at all back then, other than making sure you shaved and keeping a coordinated uniform. No hazing among the troops. The guy who dropped the Bazooka wasn't punished because no one outside his squad knew about it. There was only one time where they took a situation into their own hands. After training with the 101st as an Airborne Engineer, they were transitioning to Europe, and one time some higher ups thought they could push those guys around. George don't know who did it, but after some guys in his unit put together some dynamite and placed it under the floor of the orderly room, and it was discovered the next day, those higher ups quit pushing those AEBs around. George said that today, they all would have been sent to the stockade and gone through court martial. But, back then, they needed the guys so whatever happened came with some discipline but nothing like we would go through today.