17- Mr Bear celebrates NATIONAL AIRBORNE DAY – Grumpy Old Bears

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In this episode of the Grumpy Old Bears show, we reflect upon the celebration by Mr. Bear and Sgt, Fred of National Airborne Day, which has been a nationally celebrated day for several years — and you can check this with the site of NationalDayCalendar.com. It is always celebrated on the 16th of August every year in honor of the Airborne Paratroopers of the US Army — including the battle-hardened 82nd Airborne Division, as well as other airborne units. Most notably, Sgt Fred served 2 tours with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina as an airborne infantryman and was deployed during the preparations for going to the Middle East during the Yom-Kippur war in 1973.

As you can see, Mr. Bear is wearing his AIRBORNE hat (even though he was too scared to be an airborne paratrooper and jump out of airplanes and helicopters while in flight). Also, you can see that he is a definite fan of the LV Raiders.

Now, the 16th of August was proclaimed National Airborne Day on 3 August 2009, and since then, it has praised the honor and heroism of the Airborne forces in the US Army, since its inception in 1942 — and of course, the 82nd Airborne Division was the FIRST US AIRBORNE DIVISION in the Army that made 4 combat jumps into World War II, and which history was immortalized most by the 2 books by Cornelius Ryan and the two movies of the same name — The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far.

Even though the uniform of the US Army Airborne Paratrooper has changed recently, the spirit has definitely grown to be rough, tough, always ready and willing to serve the traditional values of the USA. In fact, since 1972, the airborne soldier is identified with the MAROON BERET, signifying that he is an airborne paratrooper. And you can see Sgt. Fred in the 1973 uniform of the paratrooper.

And this was from the traditions stemming from the WWII airborne troops of the British Army, which they called “the red beret.” In fact, when the Army made the common troops wear the black beret (which was specifically for the Ranger Units) for all personnel, the Airborne troops had their own T-shirt that gave the maroon beret its special value — “Earned — not issued!”

The other tradition since 1942 was that the airborne trooper was the ONLY soldier in the Army authorized to blouse his class A uniform trousers with his jump boots. However, this tradition came to an end with the recent change of uniform, since today, the airborne trooper must wear low-quarter shoes with the trousers.

And the last item from Fort Bragg was the addition of the “Bear-borne bear.” This was the stuffed bear, complete with maroon beret and bloused jump boots. And this item is a constant reminder of the bear-borne bears that remind Mr. Bear about National Airborne Day.

And, yes, the Bear Forces of America bear-borne bear DOES HAVE A REAL PARACHUTE on his back. So he is truly in the airborne spirit.

And finally, we also celebrate the birthday party of Matt Cox’s wife, Maria Elena. It was good to see Matt and Maria recently, and we also add the National Airborne Day honors during this time.

So, we hope that you will also celebrate with us the National Airborne Day reminders and watch movies from the services that you may have. From the 1952 movie (a bit cheesy and old-fashioned and definitely not professional) called Airborne! to the highly professional movies such as Darryl Zanuck’s classic of The Longest Day to Richard Attenborough’s classic which he directed, A Bridge Too Far (both with a long cast of famous actors, and where the actors spoke the languages that they portrayed, with English subtitles, i.e., Germans spoke German, etc.)

And from both myself, Sgt Fred, and from Mr Bear, we close by saying that we’ll see you soon.

Thank you for your attention.