1942

ALVIN E. NUNES (1942 )

Alvin came from the small town of Newman, CA and was, according to the local newspaper 'The West Side Index," the only paratrooper from the town. As such, his whereabouts and status were frequently reported. These reports give insight into what it was like to become a paratrooper and go to war.

Due to the number of reports, the images are not being included and the name of the newspaper will not be repeated, only the date of the edition will be shown,

Alvin Nunes is now parachuting at Fort Benning, Georgia, and wants the address on the Index changed so that he can read it as he floats downward to earth. [25 June 1942]

Alvin Nunes is home from Fort Benning Georgia for a brief visit with relatives having received a fifteen-day furlough. He has been receiving training as a paratrooper completing the fifth jump that qualifies him for permanent assignment on the Saturday before he left for California. Alvin says the parachute jumping is really thrilling and a source of great satisfaction in being able to make the leap. He did not “freeze” in the doorway as sometimes happens and outside of the time the chute tangled the suspension line and did not open until he had dropped about four hundred feet, there have been no untoward incidents. He did not open his emergency for his comrades would have exacted the usual tribute had he done so. [30 Jul 1942]

   Alvin Nunes is still jumping with the Parachute Infantry at Fort Benning Georgia Jump No 9 came along last week, a mass leap of approximately 400 men from eighteen planes with seventeen hopping out of the ship in which Alvin was aloft.
   The week before Nunes made his first night jump, the toughest in the training series There are no lights in the plane when the men jump out and all one can do is keep close to the man ahead and follow into dark space. It was eleven o'clock at night and Alvin wasn’t sure he was nearing the ground until he heard limbs breaking as one of the other lads landed in a tree. Nunes landed in the clear.
   But he had had his tree experience already. Jumped a bit ahead of expectation the eleven men in the group were strung out in the woods two miles from the field. Alvin was hung up in a tree some fifty feet from the ground. To get down he had to pull his rescue chute and slide down it. But that is the experience they need, he writes. for under war conditions the ’chutist can’t pick his spots. [17 Sep 1942]

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