On August 15, 1942, the 82nd Airborne became the US Army's first airborne division.
Commanded by Major General Matthew B.
Ridgway, they trained exhaustively for their new role, which involved parachuting from C-47s and insertion by Waco CG-4A gliders.
In April 1943 the 82nd was shipped overseas to Casablanca, North Africa, and on July 9 made its first combat drop as part of Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.
A second operation--night parachute drops onto the Salerno beachhead on Sep.
Casemate 82nd airborne: normandy 1944, paperback/stephen smith
