Ex-Paratroopers Drop Into Town for Reunion

ANAHEIM — Ex-paratrooper John Espinosa will put on his camouflage jumpsuit complete with silver jump wings today, slip on his jump boots, and do what he loves: experience the thrill of leaping out of an airplane.

“A lot of people say that it’s a rush,” said Espinosa, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division Assn., Orange County chapter. “But to me, it’s awesome. You take a breath and you look at the Earth, and it’s just spectacular.”

Espinosa, who served in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957, along with four other master paratroopers known as the Aztec Skydiving team, will jump from a plane this morning about 5,000 feet above the Anaheim’s Inn at the Park and land in the hotel’s parking lot.

The skydiving exhibition is part of the festivities this weekend to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hispanic American Airborne Assn. More than 350 former paratroopers, along with their wives and families, are attending the reunion at the hotel, said Richard Jimenez, the group’s president.

Wearing his maroon military beret, reserved solely for paratroopers, and bearing a tattoo of military jump wings, Jimenez said the jumping exhibition was staged because “this is what we represent. And for the guys standing on the ground watching, they see themselves in that parachute.”

Many of the group’s members no longer sky-dive, but common bonds of military parachuting and their ethnicity have brought them together to form the association.

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Founded in 1987 in East Los Angeles, the group has members in Orange County and only last year grew nationally with members from all over the country.

Members of the Hispanic American Airborne served in peacetime and in different wars, from World War II to Desert Storm, said Phil Martinez, 62, of Montebello, who helped organize the reunion and served during the Korean War.

Joe Ibarra, 59, of Anaheim, a master parachutist and a founding member of the group, said Hispanic American paratroopers “deserved a recognition of our own.”

The majority of the members are of Mexican or other Latino ancestry, but the club is not exclusive and invites all ex-paratroopers to join, Martinez said.

The 10-year reunion is a time for the paratroopers to see their old Army buddies, reminisce about their military days, share jump stories and meet other families. At tonight’s dinner and dance, the group will also honor 10 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, eight of them Latino.

“The reunion is a chance to bring everybody together,” said Jimenez, 48, of Bellflower, who earned a Bronze Star and served during the Vietnam War.

Dan Cabral, 50, of Lake Forest, who served with the 101st Airborne from 1967 to 1968, came to the reunion to find a friend he met when he was only 21.

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“I’m looking for one guy. His nickname was ‘Rock’ and he lived in El Centro,” Cabral said, breaking into tears. “I want to tell him that I love him and that he was a special friend. He was an older guy who took you under his wing--and he liked me.”

Cabral said the last time he saw his friend, who later served in the 101st Airborne Long Range Patrol Platoon, was when Rock came to see Cabral at his home in September 1968, after Cabral was discharged.

“It wasn’t until I got older when I knew want he wanted: He wanted to be friends for life.”

Another attending the reunion was Mike Rodriguez, 61, of Cypress, who served in the military from 1954 to 1958. He said the airborne units were elite with an esprit de corps: “Not everybody could qualify to jump.”

Being a paratrooper, Rodriguez added, is “something you’ll never forget. It’s an honor that we served our country.”

For 19 years, Ibarra was on military jump status during his service from 1956 to 1979, and logged 2,800 jumps.

“Once airborne, you’re always airborne,” Ibarra said, who tested parachutes and served in various airborne divisions after he joined the Army.

“The paratroopers were the sharpest. They did things that other individuals didn’t have the guts to do, and I wanted to be one of them,” he said. “If you had a pair of wings on your chest, you were the best.”

Bob Brooks, 73, of Newport Beach, who served in the Army from 1943 to 1945, said he also wanted to be a paratrooper because “I wanted to be in the best outfit. Plus it paid $50 extra a month, and, at that time I was so broke, I would have killed for $15.

“It was a fun thing, plus it was an ego trip.”

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The one jump that stands out for Brooks was on March 24, 1945, when his unit made a combat jump to the Rhine River in Nazi Germany during World War II. It was the largest airdrop of the war.

“Looking back on it, I didn’t fully understand the seriousness of the situation,” he said.

For the Hispanic American Airborne Assn., Jimenez said the group will continue to be involved in raising money for charitable causes and scholarships for students. Their goal over the next two years is to raise $50,000 for scholarships for military cadets and students pursuing a college education.

“With any luck, we’ll pull it off,” Jimenez said. “Because the [military] draft has stopped, there are more kids going to Juvenile Hall. We just want them to be educated and keep them off the streets.”