Remembering The Heroes of Green Ramp, 23 March 1994

From From Cow Pastures to Kosovo by ParachuteCutie -

A very special person asked me to post this so that we could all take a minute to remember the 24 Paratroopers who died as a result of an airplane crash at Pope Air Force Base on March 23, 1994. This special person has saved many lives as a member of medevac teams in Afghanistan (and maybe Iraq, I've never asked him). It is an honor to grant his request to remember the fallen from Green Ramp.

Please take the time to read the events of that fateful day in it's entirety and footnote references. Here are a few excerpts:

The twenty-third of March 1994 was a fitting day for an airborne jump. The skies were clear, with good visibility; the temperature was in the mid-sixties; and the winds were moderate, 4 to 6 knots. The XVIII Airborne Corps, stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, had scheduled two parachute missions, one in the late afternoon and another in the evening, using aircraft on the adjacent Pope Air Force Base (see Map). Required to undergo prejump exercises within twenty-four hours of taking off, Army paratroopers had assembled at Pope Air Force Base for training in the early afternoon. Units on the day's manifest were the 82d Airborne Division's 504th Infantry, 505th Infantry, and 782d Support Battalion (Main), as well as the XVIII Airborne Corps' 525th Military Intelligence Brigade and 1 59th Aviation Group (Combat) (Airborne).

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