Broad Jumprs

ARMY Broad Jumpers

The shape of things to come for the U.S. Army became clearer last week. Formation of the nation's first division of airborne troops was announced by Under Secretary Robert Porter Patterson--and a second airborne division soon. For global warfare, this new U.S. airborne force is substantially smaller than a regular triangular infantry division. But it is only a first step. Many, many more divisions are on paper, under lock & key, in the War Plans office. Hints have been dropped in Washington that over-all U.S. strategy contemplates the use of more airtroopers (soldiers whisked by plane or glider) than have been trained and used by any other nation at any time, anywhere. Germany is reported to have no less than 14 to 16 airborne divisions (perhaps 165,000 soldiers), besides its parachute troops. Ever since the first paratroopers began tumbling from the open doors of transport planes in the summer of 1940 at Fort Benning, Ga., the addition of airborne soldiery to the U.S. Army has been a fore gone conclusion. Now it was about to begin on a heroic scale. Sign posts: the new emphasis on transport plane construction, the new importance and authority of Army Air Forces generals, the new glider-building program. Time & Space. This was long-headed planning for a long war. For a conflict that already touched every continent and would last no one knew how long, the U.S. badly needed lots of airborne forces, for small assaults, for large-scale offensives. Airtroopers have mobility, the prime factor in using manpower economically on widely separated fronts; and speed, essence of surprise. The Germans showed the way in the airtroop tactic of "vertical envelopment"--broad-jumping across the opposing Army and destroying its defense from within. Nazi troops flew to Poland, Norway, the Low Countries, Crete, Libya. Now the U.S. may expand the Nazi textbook. The first step was to train parachute troops, which lead the airborne assault by seizing airfields and bridgeheads. Now the Army is ready to add airtroopers, who swoop in after the paratroops, help them hold and exploit the gain. Sky Generals. Command of the first two airborne divisions at Camp Claiborne, La. goes to a brace of tough brigadier generals (about to become major generals): husky, Spartan Matthew Ridgway, 47, and smart, aggressive William Lee, nine days younger. Matthew Bunker Ridgway, who will boss the 82nd, can out-hike 90% of his men. On a standard four-minute camp obstacle course his time is 3:05. He uses a jeep only when he has to, rarely rides the camp's official Packard. Fifteen years ago, when he was stationed at Fort Sam Houston, a brother officer heard a run ner's footsteps late each night on the parade ground: Ridgway, taking a constitutional after his day in the office. Now Ridgway exercises by chopping wood.

William Carey Lee, who will command the 101st, is godfather to the flying infantryman, pioneered in paratroop training. Known then as the "Jumping Colonel," he took over the paratroopers right after a siege of pneumonia, jumped with them despite other officers' protests.

In last summer's maneuvers, Lee still wore a lieutenant colonel's silver leaves.

In one of his parachute jumps he landed squarely in the middle of an "enemy" machine-gun nest. Six soldiers rose as a man and clouted him down. "Hot damn," yelled the little corporal astride his chest, "we got a colonel!"

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