William N. (Red) King; First Enlisted Paratrooper to Jump

William N. (Red) King, the nation’s first enlisted paratrooper, has died 48 years after making that initial jump.

King, who died here Saturday at age 71 of unreported causes, was the first enlisted man out of a converted bomber on Aug. 16, 1940, when the U.S. Army’s embryonic parachute test platoon made its first jump over Ft. Benning, Ga.

He was supposed to have been the second platoon member out of the plane, but he told an interviewer in 1982, “The guy ahead of me--I won’t say his name--wouldn’t jump.”

So after the other trooper was pulled from the door, King stepped out of the plane circling above Ft. Benning’s Lawson Field.

He followed the platoon leader, Lt. William T. Ryder, out of the plane.

“Everybody in there was scared, or rather anxious, but when that guy froze up, I wanted it more,” said King, who retired as a master sergeant in 1960.

King jumped into France on D-Day and into Holland with the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne.

He had been among an elite group of 50 men assembled to become the first U.S. paratroops. The Army decided to establish the platoon after watching the Germans use paratroops during their invasions of Belgium, Norway and France in the early days of World War II.

The 50 men, mostly athletes, were culled from 200 members of the 501st Battalion of the 29th Infantry, which later became the 1st Airborne Battalion. They were put through two months of secret training in several locations.