D-Day jumpers pursue renewed date with destiny

Thursday, June 3, 2004 | 11:30 a.m.

Plans for eight World War II paratroopers to leap from a plane over Normandy, France, on Monday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day are "99 percent set,"an official for the parachutists said today.

"There are still some minor bureaucratic problems right now but we expect to have them cleared up by this time tomorrow," Max Gurney, spokesman for the Return to Normandy jumpers said this morning from Normandy.

Gurney, a World War II veteran, is in France negotiating on behalf of his fellow veteran paratroopers, including Dick Case, 83, of Las Vegas.

"We have received tremendous cooperation from the French government and from the French and American news media here. We have had numerous requests to interview the jumpers and for the press to cover the jump on Monday."

Case to have flown to London today to meet the group before boarding a ship across the English Channel.

Sixty years ago he was stationed in London, also uncertain about his future as he nervously awaited orders as to whether he would be parachuting into occupied Europe in a battle that would change the course of World War II and world history.

An Army official in charge of D-Day commemoration events said Wednesday that the octogenarians would not be allowed to jump in any of the four U.S. military-sponsored events Saturday and Sunday because of safety concerns.

That decision forced Case, a former member of the famed 101st Airborne Division's "Screaming Eagles, and the others to broker a deal with the French government to jump Monday in a smaller ceremony at Normandy.

"I'm rather disappointed that we will not be allowed to jump as part of the U.S.-involved ceremonies, but I'm still going to France, and I'm ready to jump, hopefully on June 7," Case said Wednesday.

"That will be the last chance we will have. We have all made some quality (practice) jumps. We all have doctors certificates (of clearance). We'll undergo any medical exams they want us to take."

Case said he plans to attend the U.S.-sponsored ceremonies on Saturday at Ste. Mere Eglise and at least one of the Sunday ceremonies at Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc or Utah Beach.

Las Vegan Bob McCaffery, chairman of the Friends of D-Day 2004, which has assisted the jumpers, said for them to jump the day after D-Day would be a small victory.

"It is devastating that their plans to jump on D-Day fell through," said McCaffery who canceled local events last week designed to to raise money and awareness for the men.

Last month, when there was a glimmer of hope the men would be allowed to participate in one of the U.S.-sponsored ceremonies, they performed two qualifying parachute jumps.

Col. Dan Wolfe, chief of staff for the World War II 60th Anniversary Commemoration Committee, called Case and the other aging jumpers "heroic in every sense of the word -- national treasures." But he said the government could not risk their safety if something went wrong.

"Their personal safety was our top concern," Wolfe said. "If one of them is injured or killed, it would change the tone of the entire ceremony. We want to keep it positive.

"If they can make a deal with the French government to jump at one of the non-U.S. sponsored events more power to them," Wolfe said.

"We admire their intestinal fortitude, determination and courage," Wolfe said of the old soldiers who are refusing to just fade away.