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Marion County Soldier Completes
Qualifying Course as Parachutist
Chas. Gillespie of LaRue Makes Final Test Jump at Fort Benning. Ga.
Pvt Charles T. Gillespie. 24, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Gillespie of LaRue,
is believed to be the first Marion County man to take up training with the United States army's parachute troops.
The former LaRue varsity football player was a civil engineer for the state
highway department working in Division 6 out of Delaware headquarters when he volunteered
last spring. His father is chief engineer of bridges In Division 6.
Private Gillespie, whose nickname is "Joe," went to Fort Hayes on March
6 and on March 12 left for Camp Wolters, Tex, for infantry training. He completed the usual three months training on June 19 and then asked to be sent to Fort Benning, Ga.,
where the army's first parachute troops are being trained.
Although he has never done any flying, he has always been interested in aviation and everything pertaining to it, his mother said the other day.
Passed Stiff Test
He was sent Immediately to Fort Benning and underwent the
rigorist examinations required of parachutists. He passed with flying colors and on July
1 started training.
When Private Gillespie volunteered he stood five feet eleven inches and
weighed 195 pounds. Apparently his three months in the Infantry trimmed him down since army parachute
jumpers cannot weigh more than 185 pounds.
He made his first jump on Aug 5 and completed his qualifying course Monday when he and
11 other trainees made their fifth jump. Training demands two solo jumps, two mass jumps of six men, and one 12-man jump.
Before he was taken 1,200 feet in the air to make his first jump there were days of
calisthenics, getting muscles in condition, and eight jumps from a "free tower," a 250-foot tower
used in the training. On the first jump he was guided by a cable, On the others he floated down with his 'chute.
First Solo Jump
After he made his first solo jump from a plane he wrote that as he stood in the door of the plane and the jump master
said "Jump!" he wasn't frightened, only a little nervous. There was no sensation
of falling, he wrote, only a sense of floating through the air until he got
within 200 feet of the ground, that close, the ground seemed to
rush up" to meet him.
(Turn to GILLESPIE, Page 10)
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