During the late 1970s former TIME MAGAZINE war correspondent Bill Walton remarked privately as to how wildly inappropriate it was to cast the pretty-boy matinée idol Ryan O’Neal (b. 1941) in the roll as General James M. Gavin (1907 – 1990) for the epic war film, A Bridge Too Far. Having dropped into Normandy in 1944 with a typewriter strapped to his chest, Walton witnessed first-hand the grit and combat leadership skills that made Gavin so remarkable. This YANK MAGAZINE article tells the tale of Gavin’s teen-age enlistment, his meteoric rise up the chain of command and his early advocacy in the Thirties for a U.S. Army parachute infantry divisions.
Click here to read more about W.W. II parachute infantry…
Another article contrasting the Germans and the Japanese can be read here…
Click here to read General Gavin’s remembrance of Robert Capa.
Click here to read about the first American Paratrooper.
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