Disaster on Green Ramp : the Army's response

The official account of a major incident early in the careers of then-Colonels Stanley McChrystal and John Abizaid, this book is a powerful and compelling story of pain, terror, pride, courage, and compassion. It celebrates the magnificent spirit of the men and women who make up America's military community. Based largely upon the first-person accounts of those involved in the 23 March 1994 incident, this official study by the U.S. Army's Center of Military History describes the tragic events beginning with the collision of a C-130 Hercules transport and an F-16 fighter attempting to land simultaneously at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina. The fighter then struck a parked C-141 Starlifter, producing a massive fireball that brought death or injury to more than a hundred paratroopers assembled in an area adjacent to the airstrip known as Green Ramp, preparing to board a transport that would carry them aloft for a training parachute jump--the worst peacetime loss of life suffered by the 82d Airborne Division since World War II. A quick-reaction mission by nearby Fort Bragg's elite XVIII Airborne Corps assisted in responding to the crisis The reader will recognize the troopers, doctors, medics, chaplains, volunteers, and family members who triumphed over tragedy; some by name, but most by type--essentially ordinary people cast in extraordinary roles by fate. What they shared was a fierce loyalty to one another