European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 27, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Focus is a Bird it s a plane it s a " " v a lev. List. Parachute ballets a photos by Dave Casey by de Reavis staff writer t first they were just Black dots spotting a Clear Blue sky Over la Motte France. As they descended the dots grew larger becoming strange floating objects that fascinated the hundreds of viewers crowding a local Golf course to watch a Parachute jump performed by 60 men from the United states France and Britain during events. Marking the 50th anniversary of operation Dragoon earlier this month. When the jumpers became visible they seemed to be creatures from another world so invincible that they. Could defy even the Law of Gravity As they performed a slow motion Ballet cutting silent elegant half circles in the. ,. Then they landed weight Lessly with two or three Small Steps on the ninth Green of the Saint Endreola Golf course. And for a Brief moment and this was the magic of the spectacle one believed they could have spanned their parachutes and taken off again As silently As they had arrived. Their arrival was underscored by dramatic music and the recitation of a Short history of the event punctuated by the incantation thank you americans thank you British for freeing France jumping for the United states was a team from the 10th special forces group fort Devens mass., and the 7th special operations support come in Bobingen Germany. The la Motte jump was perhaps the most aesthetic event during the three Day Celebration of the 50thanniversary of the Allied Landing in Southern France code named operation Dragoon. Marvelous performance said James Parkinson a British Veteran of the original jump 50 years ago. Of _ course we did t float Down like that. You come straight Down As fast As you can when the enemy is  the Day of the original jump aug. 15, 1944, was Parkinson s 24th birthday. He was a lieutenant with the 5th in Parachute regt at the time. Our wireless failed us and we dropped 20 Miles away Parkinson said. By the time we got into la Motte a parachutists gather their chutes after a smooth Landing. Above and left jumpers bearing the american and French flags Lead their teams on a journey to Earth. Hours later it was All Over. The americans had taken the town. We were grateful for that. But because we were dropped Over such a widespread area the germans thought we were All Over the  x. Parkinson said that because German resistance was sporadic and not nearly As bitter As in Normandy soldiers a that operation called the men from operation. Dragoon. The a Day  Nitro was also impressed with the Airdrop. Nitro san american Veteran of the original jump and was a first lieutenant communications officer with the 551st acute inf regt at the time. We did t have such fancy chutes in those Days and Nad a lot of problems with them Nitro said. They made you pack your own chutes for the first eight jumps and that caused us a lot of stress unnecessary stress if you ask me.  eight in drowned in North Carolina during practice jumps., we had this damned strapping around the legs and they were difficult to release after Landing. After the drownings we adopted the British one Button release. System and were better off Nitro said. Operation Dragoon he said picked up the nickname Champagne Campaign because it was much easier than operation overlord in Normandy. We liberated several towns but when we got to Nice the French were so Happy they poured into the streets the stars and stripes giving us Champagne and All kinds of drinks Nitro  truth is that we were pretty useless after almost three Days for  historians agree however that the Airdrop at la Motte turned out to be one of the most successful during the War. The 9,732 paratroops and glider units that landed at la Motte under the command of maj. Gen. Robert t. Frederick were Given the specific task of preventing the germans from entering the strategic Argens Valley near be Muy Village four hours before the Landing on the coast. They also were assigned the task of capturing of German Gen. Ferdinand Neulin Gand his staff in his Headquarters in the nearby town of a Raguinan. That Mission was also accomplished. The stars and stripes