Saturday will mark the 24th anniversary of the official ground breaking of the Airborne Walk, the granite and concrete walkway next to Eubanks Field honoring the Airborne qualified, and used for Airborne School graduations. June 6 was chosen for the ground breaking to honor the paratroopers who landed on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion.
While the walk is a familiar sight for the Airborne community today, it was an innovative idea in 1985, said Ed Howard, Airborne Walk historian of the Airborne Historical Association, which maintains the walk.
"It was an effort to showcase the legacy of the Airborne," he said. "There wasn't (an Airborne monument) on Fort Benning, and it seemed appropriate to put it here because that's where the Airborne School is."
Creating the walk solved the question of where the Airborne School would hold its graduations. Prior to its completion in 1986, graduations had been held at locations including Stillwell Field, Fryar Drop Zone, the bluffs overlooking the area known as Cardiac Hill, and Marshall Auditorium.
Holding graduations at the Airborne walk gives new paratroopers a connection to past paratroopers, Howard said.
"With the towers in the background, students graduating here know they are in the same area where previous paratroopers trained, from the time Airborne School was created in 1941 all the way up to the present," Howard said.
The walk, in the shape of an Airborne badge, was designed by Bob Baldwin, a former paratrooper with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II. The design encourages visitors to move through the walk to view the 29 granite markers that commemorate past and present Airborne units and the original test platoon, Howard said.
"It's a good visual reminder of who's gone before," said LTC Jon Ring, commander of the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment. "It's important to remind yourself of (past paratroopers) and grasp the full gravity of what they've done."
The Airborne community plans to add 20 granite markers commemorating each of the major operations Airborne units have participated in, from the 1942 North African campaign to the 75th Ranger Regiment's current operations in Afghanistan, Howard said.
The Airborne Battle Assault Monuments will be arranged in a semi-circle 100 meters west of the Airborne Walk on Eubanks field, in front of the C-119 airplane. In the center, a plaque will bear the crests of the units that participated in the operations, and a granite marker with a world map showing where each operation took place.
"We wanted to honor those guys who jumped behind enemy lines in a hostile action," said LTC(R) Robert Timian, chair of the battle monuments committee of the 82nd Airborne Division Association Atlanta chapter, who is coordinating the new monuments. "While the Airborne walk celebrates all those who are Airborne qualified, the battle monument will honor those few who jumped into harm's way."
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