A bipartisan House delegation participated in a plane jump Friday morning to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the historic invasion that led to the end of World War II.
The group, visiting Normandy, France, for the anniversary, comprised 10 congressmen, all veterans themselves, and led by Reps. Mike Waltz (R-FL) and Jason Crow (D-CO). Reps. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) and Cory Mills (R-FL) are among those who participated to honor both U.S. and Allied veterans and troops. The lawmakers jumped from a vintage C-47 Skytrain and onto the Norman bocage.
Both Crow and Waltz participated in a similar jump for the 75th anniversary. Crow served in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment, and Waltz, the first Green Beret to be elected to Congress, served 27 years in the Army and National Guard before retiring during his second term in Congress.
Mills told the Washington Examiner the jump was “amazing.” He jumped in honor of Peter Arthur Durante, a constituent in Florida’s 7th Congressional District and World War II veteran who celebrated his 100th birthday on Monday. Durante served in the Navy Seabees in the 119th Battalion.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) praised the eight House GOP lawmakers who completed the jump in a post to X on Friday.
“Safe landings for our great patriots honoring the Greatest Generation!” Johnson said.
The bipartisan jump comes at a time in Congress when the two political parties rarely see eye-to-eye on politics. Infighting has plagued both the Republican and Democratic conferences over government spending, the wars in Ukraine and Israel, and investigations into both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
When asked what was going through his head during the jump, Crow said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that thoughts “one, two, and three” are on whether his parachute opened.
“After I got my [parachute] working properly and my lines untangled, then I just sat there and I took it in,” Crow said. “Overlooking the ocean, looking at Mont-Saint-Michel, looking at the fields, all the parachutists surround me, you know, falling down, and there’s a sense of peace and tranquility after that. You just kind of soak it in.
“And you think about in the people who made that jump 80 years ago, and how significant that was, and how so many of them didn’t make it home,” Crow added.
The Colorado Democrat said a common misconception of military parachuting is that “it’s fun.”
“You know, I actually have a natural fear of heights, whether it’s fast roping out of a helicopter or repelling or parachuting,” Crow said. “So every time I do it, I’m a bit nervy. But you know, that’s also what makes it fun and good to do, to kind of push through that. But you know, we did it. It was a great job.”
He added that during this experience, “nobody says a word about politics or any of the issues that we struggle with day to day.”
“We just enjoyed each other’s company, and focused on the veterans and what it meant to be there to recognize that anniversary,” Crow said.
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Earlier in the week, some House Republicans spoke to the anxiety of their colleagues jumping from the plane due to the GOP’s razor-thin majority of just two seats in the House. Some of those jumping dismissed those fears.
“You know what? Some things are worth doing,” Van Orden told Politico. “And if we lose the majority because some of us are paying respect to the Greatest Generation, so be it.”
