D-Day Paratrooper Jim Martin

 

“I am humbled and embarrassed at the adulation because I don’t feel we did anything we weren’t supposed to do or anything exceptional.”

That’s what 93 year old paratrooper Jim Martin said about his part in D-Day, 70 years ago.

Then he jumped out of a C-47 airplane. And parachuted onto Utah Beach. Just like he did 70 years ago, when he helped to retake France.

I was amazed at the way Martin parachuted at age 93, but I was even more inspired by his attitude about doing his duty, without any expectation of recognition.

“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'” -Jesus Christ, Luke 17:7-10

To see him jump, and to learn more about how Jim Martin celebrated the anniversary of D-Day click on: 70 years later, D-Day vet Jim ‘Pee Wee’ Martin jumps again, by Jim Bittermann and Greg Botelho, CNN

[Image via Doug Barber – Creative Commons]