By — Lorna Baldwin Lorna Baldwin Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/89-year-old-d-day-veteran-recreates-parachute-jump-france Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter 89-year-old D-Day veteran recreates parachute jump into France World Jun 5, 2014 12:33 PM EDT Video by Channel 4 News A day before the anniversary of D-Day, 89-year-old Jock Hutton recreated the parachute jump he made into a field in Normandy 70 years ago. In 1944 he was one of thousands of British and American soldiers who led the Allied assault on the German occupied lands across the English Channel. Hutton was 19 when he made the 500-foot jump, a member of the British Army’s 13th Parachute Battalion, 6th Airborne Division. Their job was to seize or destroy any bridges they came across to prevent German forces from stopping the Allies amphibious landing at dawn. Hutton told the Telegraph, “We thought we could handle anything – we were all jacked up. I must say that I felt in command of the situation. On landing, I thought, ‘This is great’.” Two weeks later he was wounded with an inch of shrapnel in the stomach, which has never been removed. “To this day I can still feel it,” the Scotsman says. “It comes to the surface and then goes away. I’ve had it for 70 years. My wee friend!” The shrapnel hasn’t stopped Hutton from parachuting. Until last year, he was still making solo jumps in the Netherlands. Today’s jump was in tandem with a current member of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now By — Lorna Baldwin Lorna Baldwin Lorna Baldwin is an Emmy and Peabody award winning producer at the PBS NewsHour. In her two decades at the NewsHour, Baldwin has crisscrossed the US reporting on issues ranging from the water crisis in Flint, Michigan to tsunami preparedness in the Pacific Northwest to the politics of poverty on the campaign trail in North Carolina. Farther afield, Baldwin reported on the problem of sea turtle nest poaching in Costa Rica, the distinctive architecture of Rotterdam, the Netherlands and world renowned landscape artist, Piet Oudolf. @lornabaldwin
Video by Channel 4 News A day before the anniversary of D-Day, 89-year-old Jock Hutton recreated the parachute jump he made into a field in Normandy 70 years ago. In 1944 he was one of thousands of British and American soldiers who led the Allied assault on the German occupied lands across the English Channel. Hutton was 19 when he made the 500-foot jump, a member of the British Army’s 13th Parachute Battalion, 6th Airborne Division. Their job was to seize or destroy any bridges they came across to prevent German forces from stopping the Allies amphibious landing at dawn. Hutton told the Telegraph, “We thought we could handle anything – we were all jacked up. I must say that I felt in command of the situation. On landing, I thought, ‘This is great’.” Two weeks later he was wounded with an inch of shrapnel in the stomach, which has never been removed. “To this day I can still feel it,” the Scotsman says. “It comes to the surface and then goes away. I’ve had it for 70 years. My wee friend!” The shrapnel hasn’t stopped Hutton from parachuting. Until last year, he was still making solo jumps in the Netherlands. Today’s jump was in tandem with a current member of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now