By Gene Kemmeter

For The Gazette

STEVENS POINT — A Stevens Point man will go the Normandy beaches in France next month to participate in the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in World War II.

John Thompson, 74, a Vietnam War veteran, will parachute from a military transport C47 plane over the skies of France between June 5 and 10 as part of the 75th anniversary observances.

“I’m not certain what day I will make the jump,” Thompson said recently. “I have my parachute, and I have to have the packing gear to stow my lines, but I won’t learn the jump date for sure until I get there.” The jump also depends on the day’s weather conditions.

To prepare for the jump, Thompson went to the Liberty Jump Team Basic Airborne Course in Dennison, Texas, earlier this year to recertify for airborne operations. “I made the jump and lost my glasses,” he said, explaining he forgot his eyeglasses straps and, as he jumped from the plane, he went one way and the glasses flew off in another direction.

Thompson, who was born four days before the actual D-Day invasion, said he would like to make the jump in honor of other veterans, especially those that gave their lives on the beaches in Normandy. He was the oldest person to jump at the jump school, and said the new parachutes are much easier to steer than the ones he jumped with earlier.

He has to be in France by June 1 to prepare for the jump and has started a GoFundMe page to help defray the expense of the trip and equipment. In addition to taking the required airborne course, he had to buy a parachute, a World War II uniform and helmet, plus other equipment. The GoFundMe page is https://www.gofundme.com/75th-anniversary-of-d-day-parachute-jump.

Thompson earned his first parachute badge after he completed the Basic U.S. Army Airborne Course at Fort Benning, Ga., and he served as the crew chief of a UH-1B Huey gun ship in Vietnam in 1965-66, assigned to the 120th Assault Helicopter Company Razorbacks. The Razorbacks were a stand-alone aviation company that provided aerial support in the Saigon area.

Thompson said he flew 632 missions during his tour in Vietnam, and was probably out three to five times a days on average. “We were out in the field all the time. I really got my adrenalin up on a daily basis,” he said. “When you look back on it, you just don’t have the same rush again. You have to do other stuff.”

As a crew chief, Thompson said flying every day got him in tune with his aircraft. “You get accustomed to the machine. I knew that aircraft so well and could fix it before it became a problem. I was not perfect, but no one ever found any problem that I hadn’t notated.” He said he twice told the crew to head back when the 20-minute fuel warning light came on, and they filled the 160-gallon tank with 159 gallons when they got back to the base.

He remembers two full days of warfare well. He said they were called out about 2 a.m., flew to a firefight and dumped a load of ammunition. His crew called in the Air Force to help out and went to the nearest outpost to refuel, then returned. The crew stayed there the rest of the day and the next, and the only time the ship was out of the air was for fuel and to rearm.

“It was intense, like being inside a popcorn machine,” he said. “I don’t know how it happened, but we didn’t take a hit. I was freaking lucky I didn’t get hit.” He said a gunner from Compton, Calif., taught him to fire his machine gun out the door while standing with one foot on the rocket pod and the other in the crew area. That position improved his line of fire, helping the soldiers on the ground.

He said he also wanted to be on his ship every time it was in the air and turned down a chance to go to Australia on leave. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt if I was gone,” he said. On his final day in Vietnam, he even went on his final gun run, returning to pack his bag and catch the airplane home the next morning.

If Thompson followed his initial desires, he wouldn’t have even been in the Army. Facing the prospect of being drafted into service, which hindered his likelihood of getting a job until his military obligation was met, he went to the Marines to sign up, but the recruiters weren’t in. Then he went to the Navy, but the office wasn’t open. The Air Force recruiters were in, but they were all dressed in suits, and he didn’t want to be dressed like that all the time.

So he wound up going to the Army and signed up for security, which required him to learn codes. In basic training he switched from security to airborne, a move he was glad he made. “They used harassment during jump school to get rid of the quitters, and about half washed out,” he said. He was glad he made the switch, he said, because it fueled his love for flying, but he couldn’t be a military pilot because he wore glasses.

When he returned home to Wausau, he got his pilot’s license in June 1966 under the GI Bill, and he’s been enjoying flying ever since, especially as a certified flight instructor. He moved to Stevens Point in the 1970s, working at ServiceMaster and then Advantage Vans before opening a flight school.

Now that he’s retired, he continues with flight instruction. “I do it because I love doing it. I’m passing on the love of aviation,” he said.

He also continues his service to veterans. Every year on Memorial Day for the last 25 or so years, he flies the plane that drops the wreath into the Wisconsin River in Stevens Point for the annual Memorial Day Program at Pfiffner-Pioneer Park. He said he usually gets a veteran from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s veterans club to act as the bombardier to drop the wreath.