BLIMPS in Honor of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion
THE SCENE:
Wet
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
Done.
WARM-O-RAMA:
10 IC Squat Jumps
10 IC SSH
10 IC High Knees
10 IC Daisy Pickers
THA-THANG:
B.L.I.M.P.S
Round 1/Round 2
5/10 – Burpees
(25 yard sprint)
10/20 – Lunges (2=1)
(25 yard sprint)
15/3. – Imperial Walkers
(25 yard sprint)
20/40 – Merkins
(25 yard sprint)
25/50 – Plank Jacks
(25 yard sprint)
30/60 – Squats
Elevens
Merkins / Big Boy Situps
25 IC Overhead Claps
15 IC Randys
10 IC Plank Dips
MARY:
Leg Raises
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
7 PAX Croissant, Topanga, Orange Julius, O’Reilly, Carport, 20/20, Woodpecker
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
On June 6, 1944, blimp shaped balloons called Barrage Balloons would appear over the beaches of northwestern France with the the U.S. Army’s 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only African-American combat unit to take part in the D-Day invasion.
Like much of the United States in the 1940s, the army was segregated by race. Of the more than 30 barrage balloon units that trained during the Second World War at Camp Tyson, four units were African American. These trailblazers were a source of tremendous pride for black America. Reporters from the robust black press of the day, along with the white national media, descended on Henry County, Tennessee to write stories about “our boys” and the “silvery sausages” they were training to fly. The Baltimore-based Afro-American newspaper chain likened the troops to the pioneering Tuskegee Airmen, the United States first black flying squadrons. Unlike the “glamorous” Negro pilots, one correspondent wrote, “these sky fighters keep both feet firm on the ground as they skillfully jockey elephantine monstrosities of destruction thousands of feet high in the sky.”
Of all the Tyson balloon units, only the 320th was sent to Britain in November 1943 to train for the invasion of France.
The battalion waded ashore with the infantry early on June 6, 1944. In order to ensure enough of the troopers survived the assault to complete their vital mission, the unit was divided into crews of three or four men spread across more than 150 landing craft.
With the invasion beachheads secure, the men of the 320th were able to deploy their barrage balloons all along the coast of Normandy. The giant inflatables kept the seemingly endless procession of landing craft safe from air attack enabling the Allied army to surge into France.
Despite their achievements, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion is largely absent from the D-Day story. Most history books do not mention them, and movies about the Normandy invasion all but ignore them.
Camp Tyson in Paris TN. America’s only WW2 barrage balloon training center.
Today let’s tell someone about the 320th barrage balloon battalion.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None
