Team continues World War II's Airborne mission In October 1943, thousands of young American men were training in the U.S. Army Airborne School-better known as jump school-as they prepared to parachute into Normandy on what would be D-Day the following June. In October 2018, nearly two dozen men and women labored through the World War II Airborne Demonstration Team's rigorous jump school in Frederick, Oklahoma, learning to jump in the Airborne tradition. Some of them hope to parachute into Normandy this June, on the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-Day. There was a significant difference between these classes, however. Most of the men undergoing this training in 1943 had been drafted, and had little say in the matter. Students learning the same techniques in 2018 were there by choice, paying for the privilege. BY MIKE COLLINS P H O TO G R A P H Y B Y T H E A U T H O R www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 69http://www.aopa.org/pilot