The Making Of A Paratrooper

By Thomas Hashway, 513th PIR

"Through These Portals Walk the World's Greatest Soldiers." This inscription  adorns the entrance to a building at the paratrooper training school in Fort Benning, Georgia and is a distinction bestowed upon all those who train to be a paratrooper.     I was a member of the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II.  Combined with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 193rd and 194th Glider Infantry Regiments, we comprised the 17th Airborne Division, an elite fighting force during the war.  I completed my training at Fort Benning and would like to take you through the experiences that turned me into a soldier.    To qualify for "Jump Wings" we had to endure rigorous physical, mental and emotional training.  Many of us began the training as confident and almost cocky young men.  I was no exception.  In high school I had earned athletic letters in baseball and in football.  After graduation, I played semi-pro football and twilight league baseball.  I was considered to be a quality athlete in excellent physical condition.  I quickly realized however, that, even with my athleticism, my physical stamina had not yet been tested. We ran five miles double time twice every morning, tumbled and jumped from mock towers, trained in judo, climbed thirty foot ropes hand over hand from a floor sitting position, practiced jumps after being hoisted to the top of 200 foot towers, exercised in a pipe maze, folded and unpacked parachutes, and finally, jumped from a plane in flight for five consecutive days.  The difficult physical training, however, was easy relative to the mental and emotional hammering we took.  Every day was an exercise in "sweating it out".  We worried that our chutes wouldn't open and we constantly doubted our own courage and physical stamina. I even questioned my sanity after reading an interview published in the GI newspaper at Fort Benning.   Lt. Col. Coutts, commandant at Parachute School, later to be promoted to Colonel was asked, "Sir, how do you account for troopers freezing at the door".  His response was, "That is a trooper momentarily regaining his senses".  I was demoralized.  However, our training regime did not give us time to dwell.  By the next day, my brief depression was replaced by exhaustion.   Many of our peers dropped out and we watched them go wondering if we would be next.   At the end of each day's training, the elated feeling of surviving gave us the strength and determination to hang in there and do it all again the next day. After qualifying, I was placed in the Fort Benning Demolition School Program for a few more weeks of training in the use of C2 compounds and other explosives, along with blasting caps and explosives wiring.  I also learned, very quickly, the meaning of the shouted warning,  "Fire in the Hole".   Then came two more jumps with demolition equipment under simulated battle conditions.  During my final school jump I was assigned to the flame-thrower unit.  During the training, I fractured two ribs in judo and severely sprained an ankle during one of the demolition school jumps, yet was not allowed to miss a day of training. Surviving the rigorous training gave us feelings of belonging, accomplishment and superiority.  This special confidence, and mental toughness was something that we all drew from during the "real thing".  We developed a camaraderie, which bordered on brotherhood.  We didn't hesitate to support a fellow trooper, whether it was a bar room or street brawl, or in the field of combat.  It's a bonding that we carry with us even now, more than fifty years later.

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