A jump to remember

Parachutes fill the sky during a jump commemorating the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Christopher McKaig of La Grande took part in the jump along with fellow Rangers, U.S. Navy Seals, French and British Commandos and German paratroopers. - Submitted photo

A sergeant with an action-filled tour of Afghanistan behind him, McKaig is training in Italy for possible deployment to Iraq later this year. In June, he got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pay homage to the heroes of World War II.

McKaig was a member of a multi-national force of paratroopers who marked D-Day’s 65th anniversary  with a jump over Normandy. Getting picked for the duty was a high honor, he said.

“Everybody in the unit wanted to do it.

It was such a treat,” he said.

And, an experience he will never forget. Looking back on it, remembering what he saw from the air, he has a bit of a hard time reconciling the Normandy of today with that of June 6, 1944.

“It’s so peaceful, you can’t believe it was one of the deadliest battlegrounds in

history,” McKaig said.

McKaig, 35, grew up in New Jersey. He moved to La Grande with his parents, Pat and Irene McKaig, in 1991. His mother and father eventually moved back East, but he continues to call La Grande home. He figures he always will.

He graduated from La Grande High School in 1992, joined the Army soon after. He trained as an airborne infantryman at Fort Benning, Ga., and also went to the Army’s Air Assault School at Fort Stewart, Ga.

He was discharged in 1996, but later decided to go back. In June 2007, he signed up for another hitch.

By December 2007, he was assigned to Company C, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, stationed in Vicenza, Italy. His unit was deployed to Afghanistan in 2008; he was one of those soldiers involved in the Battle of Wanat.

McKaig, who attended and completed U.S. Army Ranger school earlier this year, has made dozens of parachute jumps by now. But the one over Normandy, staged June 7, was something special.

He wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, but the jump itself was a difficult one and he feels it might have gone better. Weather was the biggest challenge.

“It was a horrible jump, so windy,” he said. “They were thinking about scratching it, but they didn’t. We waited for the weather to clear, then we jumped through a hole in the clouds.”

On his way down, McKaig saw a river cutting through the jump zone. He saw villages, trees — and sheep.

“When I was coming down, I was afraid I was going to land on the sheep,” he said. “I saw them and I yelled. They got out of the way. Then I hit the ground so hard I got a bloody nose.”

He was in elite company that day, so the bloody nose was a small price to pay. The soldiers he jumped with included fellow Rangers, U.S. Navy Seals, French and British commandos, even some German paratroopers.

The assignment wasn’t all work, either. McKaig and his comrades toured battle sites, visited monuments, and took part in festivities in Ste Mere-Eglise, the town made immortal in Cornelius Ryan’s book “The Longest Day,” and a movie by the same name.

Among many other incidents, Ryan’s book recounts the D-Day parachute jump at Ste Mere-Eglise in which Pvt. John Steele got hung up in a church steeple.

Steele tried to cut himself loose but lost his knife. As he dangled from the spire, a German soldier shot him in the foot. Steele survived the night by playing dead.

Others paratroopers in Steele’s unit weren’t so lucky; many were shot and killed as they floated earthward. Steele was taken prisoner, but later escaped, rejoined American forces, and fought on. The church, a monument to him, still stands. McKaig got to see it.

McKaig also had a chance to mix with many D-Day veterans who were in Normandy for the ceremonies.

“We met a Medal of Honor winner and we talked a lot with the old vets. We thanked them for their service, and they thanked us for ours. There was a mutual respect, but I think we respected them more,” he said.

From all McKaig saw, the people of Normandy still feel kinship with Americans some 65 years after the invasion that helped free France from Nazi tyranny.

“I think I saw more American flags in their front yards than I see at home,” McKaig said, adding that he and his buddies were greeted by warm, friendly French citizens everywhere they went.

“People lined the streets for miles and they made us feel like heroes,” he said. “The kids wanted souvenirs, our unit patches and our jump wings. It’s traditional to give them.”

Following the commemorative event, McKaig returned to his post in Italy. He was home on leave in July.

He will always remember his sojourn in Normandy as a happy one.

“The people were so supportive of us,” he said. “They’re thankful to this day. It was nice to be in another country and be so well-received. We heard little kids sing our national anthem, and it was a beautiful sound.”