If the enemies facing you are Germans, they are just as nervous as you are. If they are Italians, they are twice as nervous. - Edson Raff

To begin with, being a parachutist comes as naturally to some people as being a sailor does to others. Modern young men look to the sky for adventure, whether it be riding the air in a plane, in a glider or on a parachute. Only a fraction of the last generation looked skyward; yet all of the next generation will. They won't all be parachutists, of course. It's the idea of descent that makes parachuting a wartime activity only, or a limited peacetime sport at best. People, as a general rule, want to feel something under them besides air. The instinct of self-preservation and "Safety First" makes parachuting a slight mental hazard to the uninitiated. By the greatest stretch of the imagination, I can't visualize the air-age John Citizen stepping out of a plane to jump into his front yard rather than ride five miles further to the home-town airport. Heliocopters will land in the front yard without the ever-present jumping risk of breaking a leg. But that's only one side of being a paratrooper.

Be simple in your every act, word, and deed. Your men will like it and you'll get results, not excuses.

American troops- with more battle experience and basic instruction in (1) laying and lifting mines, (2) booby traps, (3) night combat, Americans will be the superior soldiers they have been in every war. There are too few junior leaders who are sufficiently tough to lead the men. It seems that only through the useless spilling of blood will American soldiers realize that good discipline saves lives on the battlefield.