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97-Year-Old Former Paratrooper Recreates D-Day Jump on 75th Anniversary

RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY

Tom Rice, who landed with the 101st Airborne on the eve of the D-Day landings, reportedly requested to pull a handle to release a giant American flag.

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SCREENSHOT/CNN

Tom Rice, a 97-year-old D-Day veteran from San Diego, parachuted into Normandy, France, on Wednesday, exactly 75 years after he landed in the same place as part of the World War II invasion by Allied forces. To mark the 75th anniversary, Rice, who was a paratrooper with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne, jumped in tandem with another parachutist after six months of training. Rice reportedly requested that he be able to pull a handle to release a giant American flag. More than 13,000 U.S. paratroopers jumped into northern France on D-Day on June 6, 1944.

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