Placing his closed hands against his chest, the jump master begins his instructions for the lot to follow "Hook up to your sky hooks and double check the person's hooks in front of you!"
Doing as told everyone secured their hooks just like before and since there's daylight this time around, Jack easily found the soldier's hook in front of him and helped him secure it to the life line above them.
Then giving the private's shoulder in front of him a light smack, Jack yelled out "Secured!" Just like the others did, even he felt Harris's big hand grab his shoulder to let him know that he's secured as well.
"Remember everyone, our job is to protect the pathfinders! Then once the invasion's underway and a majority of the paratroopers have landed, then we're going to rendezvous with our company before pushing into Eindhoven!" Jack yells out, using his strong and powerful voice to be heard over the loud roaring engine.
For a minute or two, they stood there in silence and Jack see all of the private's were full of nervous energy and they were trying to suppress their anxiety, not wanting it to show.
Jack did feel a little pity for them, as he thought of his first jump into combat and how it got to his nerves and even had his adrenaline pumping through him.
Nevertheless, he had faith in them though, as did Harris and the rest of the veterans who were standing at the back of the line.
As the plane cruised along, they finally got over a open field and the light switched from red to green over the door that leads outside.
"Ok boys go kick some kraut ass, go go go!" The jump master hollered as he began to lead the rookie troops to the door before helping them jump out of the plane.
This time, Jack wasn't going to hesitate in jumping and he made his way to the door, letting the jump master guide him over before he took his leap out and into the sky.
The wind smacked hard against him as he free called for a moment before his static line deployed and his chute opened wide.
The chute caught his fall and it forcefully yanked him up, slowing his fall as he descended in the beautiful clear blue sky. The view itself was spectacular and the Germans weren't even shooting at them this time around due to the element of surprise.
It was a nice change of pace for once, but Jack knew that this peace wasn't going to last very long.
His attention however, was brought back to the ground that's racing up to meet him and he bent his knees to prevent any injury, then he braced himself for impact as he collided with the ground.
He fell onto his side as gravity took him down, it was a safe, textbook landing as Jack raced to undo the harness and chest straps that's keeping the parachute harness secured to him.
Once he was free, he got up on his knees and pulled his rucksack up next to him and opened it, checking to make sure that his supplies and rations survived the fall. Then he closed the rucksack before moving over and picking up his BAR rifle he had set down next to him.
He checked the magazine and pushed the safety off, the entire process only taking him two minutes to do and he was already up on his feet accessing the situation.
As soon as the last man touched down, Jack began giving his orders "Set up the perimeters, I want security kept tight and these boys kept alive. Let's do our job and see to it that our Eagles have a safe place to land." Jack ordered, taking charge and getting everyone moving to see that it gets done.
*****
Twenty minutes later, 13:12.
With the pathfinders landed and setting up, this puts the German's into full alert, so with that in mind James's jump isn't going to go as smoothly as Jack's had gone.
YOU ARE READING
Screaming Eagles
Historical Fiction"You're about to embark on a great crusade..." General Dwight D. Eisenhower had said in his speech to the troops prior to the opening assault on Normandy's shores. However, Jack and James O'Brian never heard that speech, because they were in the air...
