In March 1947, our Jump School Class at Ft. Benning was the first to jump exclusively from the Fairchild C-82 Packet.
Afterwards, we only jumped from the C-82 at Ft. Bragg.
Except: After a summer of training National Guard at Cape Cod, all of us were about to lose jump pay. On return to Ft. Bragg in September, 'Slim Jim' (General James M. Gavin) called in every C-82 in the Southeast and even loaned his personal C-47 for us to re-qualify. I had the pleasure of being one to jump from his C-47, the only time I ever jumped the C-47.
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