'Tough' Paratroops To Test
Fitness In Kyushu Maneuvers
BEPPU. Japan, Sunday, Nov. 13. (AP) --- More than 800 paratroopers of the tough 508th airborne regiment will hit Kyushu Island next Wednesday In their biggest maneuver since the Red Devils flew here In "Operation Gyroscope" last summer from Camp Campbell, Ky.
[It was called "Operation Gyroscope" because It was a balanced move, with one group arriving as another left.]
Wednesday's battalion-sized Jump follows three months of
rigorous training which was climaxed last week by the first Inspection by the Army Far East commander. Gen.
L. D. White.
The paratroopers get standard Infantry escape and evasion training rather than anything
like the special anti-barn [sic, s/b "brain"] washing course the Air Force employed In Nevada this year. The emphasis Is on conduct as a soldier and in keeping from the enemy anything he can use, as expressed In the military code proclaimed recently by President Eisenhower.
LESS SHOCK
"Capture is not such a shock to well trained soldiers as It is to airmen." said Col. Norman E. Tipton, of Asheville, N. C.
"These soldiers here are trained to withstand harsh circumstances, cold and hardship, and they are taught to kill. We feel they have more resistance.
Gen. White agreed that the best defense against brainwashing is "a well
disciplined soldier."
[Fort Lauderdale News, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 13 Nov 1955, Sun, Page 32] |
Mass Air Jump Delayed
BEPPU, Japan, Nov. 17 (AP) --- A mass parachute drop of more .than 800 troopers of the U. S. 508th Regimental Combat Team .was postponed for 24 hours today because or rain. |