We will fight evil, but we will do it from above 15,000 feet.
I've been a paratrooper all my life.
Because we all know one of the main factors of war is the element of surprise. And what could be more surprising than the First Batallion Transvestite Brigade? Airborne Wing.
In my teens, I joined the Parachute Regiment. I jumped out of lots of airplanes, as much as the Government budget would allow us to. I did two active tours of duty: Northern Ireland, and then the Falklands war.
For fear of dropping the troops in the sea, the pilots tended to drop them too far inland - some of them actually in the British lines. The weapon containers often fell wide of the troops, which was another handicap that contributed to our excessive casualties.
As an A-10 squadron commander in the Air Force, I was required to be ready to deploy my 24 Warthogs and team anywhere in the world within 24 hours, including the Korean Peninsula.
Fort Bragg is an enormously important presence as the home to the 82nd Airborne and the Global Response Force of the XVIII Airborne Corps.
I was raised in the paratroopers.
I have jumped out of airplanes but I was not technically a paratrooper. I was an infantryman and a night fighter, anti-terrorist.
I jump out of perfectly good airplanes, and it's a great thrill and it allows me to share in the dangers that our great men and women in uniform share in on a regular basis.
