WWII paratrooper skydives at 85
TURTLECREEK TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Clarence Turner Jr. had open heart surgery in 1999 and knee replacement surgery in 2009. Before anything else happened, the 85-year-old wanted to realize a dream: A parachute jump, just like he did 65 years ago right after World War II.
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Personal short story related: I had the honor of “putting out” a Normandy jumper in the summer of ‘95. Did all his training for a civilian static line jump. When I pointed and yelled “GO!” at him on the step of the Cessna 182, he let go and assumed the hands on his stomach, legs together, arched forward jump position he had been taught so many years before in Airborne School - not what we trained him for that day. He was fine and I had a big grin on my face. I had him sign my logbook for my jump behind him. He couldn’t make the trip to France for the celebration, so he came to our little DZ in Suffolk, VA.