The second book from my summer reading list is another one about the 508th PIR. This book is not as big as the previous one and is told from the perspective of one paratrooper, the author Dwayne T. Burns. He wrote this book with his son Leland Burns.
The title comes from a personal prayer that the author adapted from Psalm 23 […Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…].
A lot of flashbacks interrupt the combat story line and make the book a bit hard to follow at times. But they serve the point of making the story human and relatable. He often tells about his youth in Fort Worth, training in California and Georgia, and his young fiancee Minerva, whom he feels destined to return to after the war to get married. It’s what keeps him going.
There is a lot of soldiers’ humor in it. You will have a good chuckle in every chapter.
One detail that stood out to me is Burns’ description of the modified T-5 parachute for Market Garden. He mentions training with it in England, as well as using the quick release on his combat jump near Nijmegen. It was my understanding that only the 101st Airborne were issued with the modified T-5s, due to insufficient available quantities.
Burns was the only one from his company to come out of the war without a scratch. The other 140 men who had made the Normandy jump had been either killed, wounded or captured.
The next review will be of “Surrounded by Heroes”, by Len Lebenson.
