???Fully integrates illustrations with text ???Includes more than 150 photographs, most in color and many rarely seen ???Captures the spirit of the volunteers and their sacrifices ???Calls attention to previously neglected aspects of airborne history This handsome, large-format book takes the reader on an illustrated tour of the U.S. Army's hard-hitting airborne forces, from the original Parachute Test Platoon of 1940 to the multiple global commitment of the twenty-first century. Featuring more than 150 photographs, some rare or seldom seen and many in color, the work highlights the extraordinary history of the airborne units as they added new dimensions to national power and military operations, arriving from the sky by parachute and aircraft and compressing time by their swift deployment and flight to objectives thousands of miles distant. Airborne operations of World War II in the Mediterranean, Europe, and the Pacific begin an inspiring story that leads through Korea, Vietnam, a

Robert K. Wright Jr. holds a PhD. from the College of William and Mary and is a retired Army Reserve major. He served in uniform as an historian in Vietnam, Panama, the first Gulf War, and Somalia and as the XVIII Airborne Corps as a civilian. He retired from the U.S. Army Center of Military History where he wrote or co-authored The Continental Army; Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution; Military Police; and Story of the NCO. He is also the co-author of The Tradition Continues written for the Virginia National Guard. John T. Greenwood holds a Ph.D. from Kansas State University and has been a military historian with the U.S. Army and Air Force since 1970. Currently chief historian for the Army's Office of the Surgeon General, he also served as editor of Karl-Heinz Frieser's The Blitzkrieg Legend.