The last time former Army paratrooper Polito “Paul” Olivas jumped out of a perfectly good plane, Lyndon B. Johnson was president, the average cost of a new car was $3,500, and the Beatles released their first album in the United States.
At least once a week for the past nine months, Nichole Gallagher and her daughters, Annalynn and Haley, counted the days remaining before their husband, father and best friend came home.
Few things in this world are more beautiful than a sky full of U.S. Army paratroopers descending from a fleet of C-130s on a perfect spring day. The planes glide by, the chutes pop open, and the troopers float down to Earth like dandelions in the breeze.
