At 98, D-Day Vet Jumps Again, With Eyes on the Big 100
Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:59 am
Tom Rice, a 98-year-old American WWII veteran, front left, approaches the landing zone during a tandem parachute jump near Groesbeek, Netherlands, Sept. 19, 2019.
GROESBEEK, NETHERLANDS - Jump by jump, 98-year-old D-Day veteran Tom Rice is nudging closer to his goal of leaping out of planes at age 100.
The American who caused a sensation in June by parachuting into Normandy for the 75th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings was at it again on Thursday.
This time, his landing zone was in the Netherlands.
Rice, strapped to a younger parachutist who steered the canopy, jumped as part of commemorations for massive airborne landings September 1944.
He described their jump as "perfect" and said: "I'm going to do it until I'm 100."
Rice jumped with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division on D-Day.
Thursday's jump with hundreds of parachutists was to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, a 1944 land-and-airborne thrust through the Netherlands.