19 APR--This Day in US Military History

2015-04-19T09:21:10-04:00

1919 – Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute.

Irvin was born in Los Angeles. He became a stunt-man for the fledgling Californian film industry, for which he had to perform acrobatics on trapezes from balloons and then make descents using a parachute, the Type-A.
Irvin made his first jump when aged fourteen. For a film called Sky High, he first jumped from an aircraft from 1,000 feet in 1914. He developed his own static line parachute as a life-saving device in 1918 and jumped with it several times. He joined the Army Air Service’s parachute research team, and at McCook Field near Dayton, Ohio.
After World War I, Major E. L. Hoffman of the Army Air Service led an effort to develop an improved parachute for exiting airplanes by bringing together the best elements of multiple parachute designs. Participants included Irvin and James Floyd Smith. The team eventually created the Airplane Parachute Type-A.

https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/april-19/

April 19

19 April 1721 - Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born. 1764 - The English Parliament banned the American colonies from printing paper money. 1775 - At about 5 a.m., 700...

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 19 at 2015 9:28 AM

2015-04-19T09:28:13-04:00

Wow....the roots of the Paratrooper go a lot further back than I thought.

Response by MSgt Robert Pellam made Apr 19 at 2015 11:33 AM

2015-04-19T11:33:05-04:00

Hats of to the man who not only talked the talk, but walked the walk. or in this case jumped from an airplane. There is courage, and there is crazy. That man had the best of both.
His courage in being an experiment not only starts the paratroopers, but helps save countless lives because of the parachute. Just awe inspiring.

Response by SSG Carlos Madden made May 4 at 2015 10:11 AM

2015-05-04T10:11:29-04:00

What about Patriots Day aka Battle of Lexington and Concord?

Response by SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. made May 4 at 2015 12:05 PM

2015-05-04T12:05:28-04:00

LTC Stephen C. I just grew a new hero. Gonna put his picture right next to Bill Welch and Georgie Patton!