To mark the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, specifically the men of the 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions who jumped into France in advance of the troops hitting the beaches, a group of veterans in Congress will duplicate their parachute jump. On Friday, these veterans, wearing replicas of the 1944 paratrooper’s uniforms, will jump from a vintage C-47 aircraft onto the same drop zones used in 1944.
“From a military standpoint, the longer you’re sitting up there floating under a parachute, the more vulnerable you are to get shot. So you want to be as low to the ground as possible so that you float to the ground as fast as possible,” said Waltz, a retired Green Beret who, along with several of his House colleagues, will jump from a plane over France on Friday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
“You don’t land softly, like when you see a skydiver just…
