Beautiful streamer, open for me,
Blue skies above me and no canopy;
Counted nine thousands, counted too long,
Reached for the rip cord, the damn thing was gone.
Beautiful streamer, why must it be?
White silk above me is what I should see,
Just like my mother that looks over me;
To hell with the rip cord, ‘twas not made for me.
Beautiful streamer, follow me down,
Time is elapsing and here comes the ground;
Six hundred feet and then I can tell,
If I’ll go to heaven or end up in hell.
Beautiful streamer, this is the end,
Gabriel is blowing, my body won’t mend;
All you jump happy son’s of a gun,
Take this last warning as jumping’s no fun.
Another piece of crap to the uninitiated, I suppose. All of the Old Timers said that the 11th was the hardcore of the airborne divisions, gone by my day (not counting the 11th Air Assault Division).
Among the hardcore of the 11th were many WWII and Korean War airborne veterans- not all of them on the U.S. Side. We had quite a few *Lodge Act* foreign volunteers, some former German *Green Devils* as well as some former French Para and Foreign Legion types who saw what was coming in Algeria and got out as their enlistments terminated and took their skills elsewhere. Quite a few moved on into 10th Group with a reenlistment, others who qualified for US citizenship took it and some of those went to civvy street and others re-upped.