Some Real Perspective

So as we get emotional about the Jackets playing beesball, we have to remember those who fought for our country so that you and I would have the freedom to cheer on the Jackets. We should all honor those who gave up their lives and those who continue to fight for us around the world.

Here is a story about D-Day with a YellowJacket connection - one of the transport planes piloted by a GT grad.

Peek's pilot, a Georgia Tech graduate, had named their transport the "Rambling Wreck." On the eve of D-Day, it was loaded with 18 paratroopers, each carrying about 70 pounds of equipment. With a parachute, the men weighed an average of 100 pounds over their body weight. The plane slowed to near stall speed at the inland drop zone south of the beaches.

"When it got time, they'd stand up and hook up. Their ripcord attached to a cable, and each one would check the other one. They'd count off '1-OK, 2-OK ...' and when the green light went on -- boom, they were out within 18 seconds," Peek said. "We were down to 800 feet by the time the last man was out. We came up the coast, looking back into the bay. It was like the Fourth of July."

After the drop, the transport headed back to Barkston, then turned right around the next morning to resupply paratroopers on the ground with more guns, food and medicines.

The paratroopers had nerves of steel, as long as they didn't have to land, Peek said. "They were all afraid the plane would get hit, and they wouldn't get to jump out."

As for the flight crew: "We never even carried parachutes. We had a .45 revolver and hoped we could get the plane down."