I love this thread. My grandfather served in the 503rd in the Pacific. Was part of the jump on Corregidor. Later transitioned to the 11th where he was part of the first wave of the occupation of Japan. He had many brutal and humorous stories. I will share two:
1. First kill: comes out of a fox hole and comes face to face with soldier that looked "younger than I did- I froze and so did he. My friend reaches over and pulls my trigger for me and kills him. He says, the first one is on me, next one's on you". This always made him tear up.
2. Caught in tree: Night jump; Supposed to land into clearing surrounded by jungles occupied by enemy- of course, he misses LZ and lands in jungle and gets hung in tree. Jet black- no moon/star light. Has to hang for hours (no idea how long), couldn't cut down bc he had no idea who was below him. Couldn't piss- nothing. First beams of sunlight come out enough for him to see in front of his face, he said "I'm maybe 2 feet from the ground; all this time I was worried about falling on someone and I should have been worried about someone walking in to me!" This one always made him laugh.