Letter to the editor

Dear Editor,

Montana is where airborne warfare got started….fighting fires. The Airborne Battle Memorial at Fort Benning, Georgia, where I attended Infantry Officers Basic Training, doesn’t mention that the founder of U.S. Airborne forces and his staff went out to Missoula in June and July 1942 and watched the early smokejumpers make 10 practice jumps then jump fires in rough terrain from low-flying aircraft. U.S.Army Major William Carey Lee brought parachutes and a static line back to Georgia where he formed the 101st Airborne Division and became the father of U.S. Airborne Doctrine.

The U.S....