Training centers all over the country and expand what we had. We had to build Training Centers all of the country and these are the types of buildings that are represented. Now, if you notice this is a friend of mine. His name is richard. This is him in september of 1942, when he started his training in toccoa, georgia. Im wearing boots, coveralls, and overseas cap just the way they did to train. One reason they issued coveralls to train with was world war ii was truly a global war. We were fighting in the pacific in the islands, we were in africa, we were also in europe. So you were not quite sure where you are going to go. Therefore you were issued coveralls and when you were heading into combat zones, you would switch into the uniform that fit for that. So, fortunately this weekend, you see, just like the barracks would look like in world war ii when these guys were training. This is what they would have been doing if they were preparing to go out for dday, getting their gear, training. All of their equipment set out, clean, worked on. These buildings were very simple. If you notice here on the inside, it is very warm. A couple reasons why it is very warm. First off, no insulation. Because these buildings were quickly put up, they did not spend a lot of time. They just put black tarpaper on the top. , heatst, lack tarpaper these buildings up and it gets very warm. When it is cold outside it gets pretty cold in here. These buildings were on stilts. They did not waste time building foundations. Air gets underneath the buildings and makes it a little colder at night on the inside than the outside. These guys are preparing to be paratroopers. You can see the different equipment. We have some parachutes laid out, as well as a lot of weapons. One thing that people notice, and they comment on all the time, is the head positions of these beds. If you notice, head to feet, head to feet. The reason for that, illness. They were worried about illness. If you turned and coughed, we were coughing at someones feet on either side of you, and that way that helped prevent the spread of illness. Here is a typical footlocker for world war ii. This is where you kept your personal effects. Obviously not a lot of room for things, but you would have your socks rolled up, you would have gear, your lock, maybe extra patches, your tie, towel, washcloths, as well as shaving cream, your toothpaste, as they called it dental cream, soap. Everyone was issued a bible that wanted one. Your shaving kit, along with a shaving brush, and some other personal effects. A lot of guys had letters from home, different things, along with, very popular in world war up pinups to keep morale youd up. That was one of the favorite things. You pretty much could not see a footlocker without some sort of beautiful woman on the inside. That motivated our troops, always. Typically you would not have the weapons inside the barracks with a grenade, but this is a layout as they prepared to go out to battle. They would have their web gear, the cartridge belt, which they kept their ammunition. Their back where they kept personal effects, extra underwear, socks, shaving equipment, soap, a lot of insect powder to keep off the insects. Extra bandoliers here, grenades. Paratroopers needed a lot of grenades, because they worked at night and the muzzle flash would definitely give you off, as well as the sound of the gun going off. It would definitely let the enemy know where you were at, so they relied on hand grenades at night. Different mines they would have carried with them to take out enemy tanks, or basically take out their track. Gas masks and ammunitions. They would carry extra ammunition for machine guns, they could carry mortar rounds. Basically paratroopers had to create a supply line. When they were jumping behind enemy lines, if they did not take it with them, they did not have it. So they had to become a supply line for their mission. If you bring up any type of vehicle from world war ii, everyone is going to mention the jeep. They became the standard that everybody, you think of a vehicle from world war ii, you are thinking of a jeep. Here is a great example of a 1945 jeep that has been restored nearly to the condition that it rolled off the factory floor with. These things were outstanding design. Bantam,e designed by which later got the contract. Ford made them as well. They were designed for an 18yearold out of high school to fix with hand tools using only a manual in the field. So they were very simple. My mower at home is more complicated than this jeep. It is very simple to work on. That is why they are still popular today. These engines and this design were built up until the early 1970s. Willies in france made these for the french army. This is a popular design. You can still buy every single part for this, and people love these. It is always a huge attraction to have a jeep around. Me, personally, i drive mine around town to different places to keep it running. People are always glad to see it, people are always waving. They are incredible. It is an incredible design that bantam came up with. [video clip] they tried to drown my motor. My ignition was set too high for that. They tried to break my back on roller coaster roads. When i held together, it looked as if the army and i might somehow get along because they gave me a nickname. From the words generalpurpose, they took the g and the p, and they called me jeep. Sounded more like a noise than a name. Mr. Henesy jeeps were definitely used on dday. There were two ways they came in. The airborne have them, they were brought in by glider. After the parachutists got out, they were brought in on gliders. Gliders brought in the heavy equipment for dday. They brought in artillery, jeeps. Naturally it was a little hairy, because when you add that much weight to a glider. There were a lot of accidents with those. But, they also came in on the beach once they started to establish a flow to the beach. Definitely the jeeps were the way to go. They were used in multiple, multiple different aspects, including towing equipment. It had a hitch. You could add a trailer to it, where you could tow ammunition. This is a bantam trailer that goes right on the back. It has a heavy duty hitch here on the back that could tow artillery. It could tow trailers. Just about anything. This was a do it all vehicle. Absolutely excellent vehicle. Over here we have basically a tracked jeep. Studebaker made these. We called these a weasel. These were great for snow. These actually were amphibious. You could plug it and it would actually swim. This one has been pretty well restored, but there is still plenty of work to do on it. The owner of this one has three of these, in which he said he needs three of them to keep them running. Just an outstanding vehicle. It is a lot of fun. A lot of times they were used to transport troops out. For instance, in bastogne and the bulge, where there was heavy snow, these things were vital. They would run these up to the front lines, they would run ammunition up, and they would start bringing wounded out. It was the only way they could quickly get the wounded out of the battlefield because the snow was so deep at that time. [video clip] even deep water is no obstacle. This baby can swim. But one word of caution. The weasel is not a surf vehicle. If you try to operate it in choppy water, you are asking for a dunking. On a level road, it has a top speed of about 36 miles per hour. Four study for steady cruising, however, it should not be driven and more than 25. This extra power also comes in handy when you are pulling through very heavy mud, swamp, or marshland. In terrain like this, proceed slowly. [gunfire] not bad for 75 years old, is it . Wait until your car is 75 years old and try that, see how far you get. Mr. Henesy now this one is absolutely a rare item. This is a scooter used by the airborne. If you notice it has the hook set up. This was dropped from the airplane and floated down. Made by cushman, who makes a lot of golf carts today. A very simple but effective, because it was easy to get to the ground. They push these handcarts out. Theres a funny story, one of the 101st airborne troopers who was trying to push this handcart out they were pushing , out the door before they jumped and it got wedged in the door, and the whole stick was stuck in the plane and they were punching and kicking to get it out. By the time they got out they were miles over there drop zone, because this got stuck in their door. But this was famous because if you remember the movie the longest day, i believe it was john wayne got pulled around in one of these. This was it. This was an easy way to quickly carry things like a machine gun. You could either be towed by a scooter, or this handle comes off and goes on the end and two guys would push it right along. I will take that off for you right here. This handle comes off and it would go right here on the end and plug in. Two guys would then hold it, pick it up and carry it. You could carry a lot of things. Medical supplies, radios. Bazooka rounds, mortar rounds, mortars, machine guns. You name it, these guys used the cart to transport around quickly, because these guys especially, especially the paratroopers, were way overloaded. For instance, the gentleman we richard, he was 56 and weighed 135 pounds. When he boarded the airplane, he had over 130 pounds of gear on. A few planes over there was a gentleman posing for the media, the newspapers at the time. He got on the scale and weighed 136 pounds. He then gearing up for his mission before he parachuted into normandy and when he got back on the scale, he weighed 315 pounds. So, these guys were way overloaded. Once we got to the ground, we were dropping, parachuting in ammunition, parachuting in all sorts of things, machine guns. With that much weight plus the other things you had to carry, these carts were a godsend. Two man team, you could bring more gear onto the battlefield. This is an airborne bicycle. Now, this was the british really enjoyed these. The american troops also brought some of these in. This folds up and you can actually jump with this. Hey, mike, this was a british one, right . This is made by birmingham small arms. If you look at this rocket et, you see the bsa insignia there. That is their trademark. That was a British Company that took a civilian bicycle and modified it to suit the needs of a paratrooper. And the deal was the paratrooper had to go out of the plane, and he literally had to carry this thing out. So the bicycle folds up, and the paratrooper actually jumps out of the plane with it like this, with a leg strap on. As he was coming down he would let it go and it would fall about 20 feet, hit the ground a second before him. So the folding, it fits through the door of the plane. It is that simple. Its an example of the civilian stuff getting converted for military use. Very clever. Thats it. And it was used primarily for communication purposes, for message delivery, for runners, to help them get around a little easier. It was not for luxury or comfort, it was for that purpose. Mr. Henesy excellent. Thank you. The heavy equipment. Radios, ammunition. You could not jump with all that stuff. These bags would be attached to the bottom of the airplane. They would be cut loose with parachutes on them, but then you would have to look for your bag. These bags all had these flashlights on them. They were colorcoded so that way you would know what was in the bag. This could have a blue cap, green, red, yellow, all meant different things. They had a chart that explains what each light meant. If guys are looking for radios, that may be blue and green. They are looking for a bag with blue and green on them. These radios are large. I always joke with the kids, i call these iphones. These were the iphones for 1944 right here. They are about 30 pounds. It takes about 10 pounds of batteries to run this for about two hours. That meant you had to bring a lot of batteries with you, or you had to be hooked up to a generator. As you see over there, we have the small gas generators they parachuted in. You see over here. They had these. They also had the type of generators that were done by hand. We also have one of those. I am not sure where the hand generator is, but basically they would have to wind it so they could transmit. He has that with all the pathfinder gear we have. I know he has that, it was in the field out there earlier. Ok, i am here with my two group members. Ryan and dawson. Ryan is going to go through a jump load for guys who were jumping into normandy. Take it away. Here we have a parachutist geared up in loadout. I am going to take you through the display real quick before we start to put the parachute on top of him and i will run you through everything and we will go from there. They had camouflaging scrim and helmet net. They had their musette bag, basically a backpack they would store raincoats down to k that. S, food, things like also a parachutist first aid kit. A lot of guys would tie that anywhere they could. You have a grand belt, which held ammunition for the rifles. They were given a bayonet. Canteen and a canteen cup. They were also given an m3 fighting knife, which guys tied to their legs, wrist, anywhere they could get it. This is a gas mask bag. A lot of guys found it to be useless, the gas mask at least. But it was a rubberized, waterproof bag. They would put things in it they did not want to get ruined. Papers, cigarettes, things like that. Heres an ammunition bag. It carried ammunition and anything else they could fit in there. You have a letdown rope. If you needed to, they got stuck in a tree or needed a rope for anything, this would help them get out of a tree or lift things or pull things. A lot of guys tossed those pretty quickly. They were given an entrenching tool and cover, a shovel to help dig foxholes and other needs. They have jump cloths as well, which in early they were considered an essential part of protection. They were given a hawkins mine and a grenade. This was meant to blow tracks off of tanks. A lot of guys did not find it useful, so they would take a few of them together and set them off at once to do some real damage. They were given one days supplies of k rations, as you can see here. They would mostly break them apart and stuff them in their pockets, in the musette bag as opposed to being in a hard box. You also have here bandoliers, which carried more ammunition, just like the belt. They would swing them across themselves, over on top of the gear and it was ready and easily accessible. If you were an officer, you were given a map case that held maps, pencils, essential information. There were also given something special. This is called a cricket. It was basically a childrens toy. They also had little ones that looked like frogs. They came in like crackerjack boxes. One click for a call. Response, two clicks. They also had audible responses. Flash and thunder. And you have something here called a mae west. The mae west for the Airborne Troops was pretty much useless because after this, you put your parachute on top and its secured over top. When it goes to inflate, it will not inflate. But it was Army Air Corps rules any trooper going over a body of water had to wear a life vest. So you put the mae west on and you have the t5 parachute. It is a 15 foot static line that would extend, it would pop out as you left the plane. As you continue to fall, this would extend. It would break the packing tie, which was attached to the main canopy, and as you continue to pull the tension that would break, and the canopy would already start to be inflating. This was left behind with the plane. You have your reserve. If for whatever reason there is a catastrophic failure, you have a reserve. The idea is to hold it, release, throw away. Get behind the parachute, throw it into cleanair. This is a griswold bag with an m1 grand. This is the main battle rifle used during world war ii for american troops. It was the most commonly issued weapon to the troopers itself. It broke into three main parts. This, stock, and the third part is a trigger assembly. It would go inside this bag with the metal rod, run through these holes. Holes and grommets. Go into the backside, there was a snap hook. This is a british leg bag. So, its very similar to the modern rucksack. But, at the last minute they would spring these bags on the paratroopers themselves. The british leg bag was commonly lost in the jump. Mostly because this was actually supposed to run through the harness itself on the british parachute. The harness would actually run through, and it would be sewn shut down. When it dropped, it would tug on the harness, not the human body. A lot of the guys would just have to tie it to their bodies in some way, shape or form. When they were jumping at the higher speeds that they had to, the latch would rip the bag right off. With that, with the loose way they tied it, and went with the wind as well. Ok. So, we have dawson here. Pretty much all the gear you see here on top. It varied from trooper to trooper depending on your job. Heres also something iconic with dday. I am sorry, with the paratroopers. Very iconic with the paratroopers. Ipper are called re pouches. Basically you can fit the same amount of ammunition from this grand belt in the space of these two. Most guys had four. You could fit more ammunition in a smaller space. It is always about bringing more for this big invasion. All right. I will take that for you. So, he would next put on his mae west. You would help strap that in. This would run around his back. Through one loop, then hook up on the other side. The way the mae west worked was there was two cartridges on either side. When he pulled, the co2 would , and if forte whatever reason the mae west did not work, he has two manual ways of blowing air into the mae west. So he has his mae west on. Next, at this point he would have his jump helmet on. So, he has a big weather cup. They have special liners with 10 cups riveted into the liner, cups riveted into the liner, which was tight. The idea is you do not want the helmet to go anywhere. From there, at this point he would lean forward, sticking his arms out. I would throw it up on him, and he would continue to lean forward, while i have to feed gear such as a shovel. See how the shovel is kind of tough to get through. You have to feed that through. So even like this, this is something you would have to try to feed through his actual harness, because you have so much stuff. It is kind of like a game. Figure out where this stuff is going to feed through. All right. Lets say on this side the harness was fighting with his canteen. So, get that on. You get it up and high, square with his shoulders. Then he would start to help him put the parachute on. Left leg strap. He would then find the proper snap hook. Right leg strap. Its this one. Ok. Now, stand up. What you would then do is chest, connected. Stand up straight. I dont know if you have noticed the size of my sweat. The uniform compared to his is a darker color, and there is white residue to it. As well as you see here something called a gaspathzard. Would dunk in a paste before normandy because of the fear of gas. It gave them a darker appearance was wax in the formula and it left a white, flaky residue. The chemicals were cancerous. Details of that were a darker color, white flaky residue, smelled, and it was a very stiff uniform. It was pretty gross to begin with. Also, if it detected gas, it would turn a pink color. Now, they went a littl