Edwin Maling: Service With the Multinational Force and Observers

Ed Maling is a former paratrooper with the 505th Regiment

By JIM PURCELL

Today, Edwin H. Maling is a grandfather who resides in San Marcos, Texas. He is retired and finds joy in his home-life and his family. But, there was a time, three decades earlier, when hearth and home was the last thing on his mind.

 Mr. Maling is a veteran of the United States Army's 82nd Airborne Division, where he served with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment as an Airborne Infantryman. His travels with the Division took him many places -- and among those places was the Sinai Peninsula, which separates the Middle-Eastern countries of Egypt and Israel, as part of the Multinational Force and Observers.

Mr. Maling's Army sojourn began right out of high-school, in his native Virginia. He was recruited in Norfolk and sworn-in at the Military Entrance Processing Station in Richmond on June 25th, 1981. He attended Basic and Advanced Individual Training at Ft. Benning, Georgia. After earning his blue infantry cord at Ft. Benning, he changed his address a few blocks there and underwent training at the U.S. Army Airborne School.

Like so many young paratroopers, Mr. Maling found his way to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 505th PIR. A storied unit that was founded in 1942 for service in World War II, the 505th has played a key role in nearly every U.S. military endeavor since.

Mr. Maling said, "It was a good unit with excellent training and opportunities and a chance for travel." However, Mr. Maling saw the 'downside' of the unit being its "dog and pony show" atmosphere and what he regarded as "toxic leadership" in some places within the unit at the time.
According to Mr. Maling, life at the 505th included many field training exercises and "prodigious drinking" when him and his fellow paratroopers were released from duty.

The 505th PIR crest

He was not even out of the 82nd Replacement Detachment, which all soldiers entering the Division pass through, when the Fayetteville Observer newspaper announced that the 1/505th Regiment had been selected for "MFO duty."

MFO DUTY

The Multinational Force and Observers is an international peacekeeping force that was organized for the expressed purpose of overseeing the terms of the peace treaty between the nations of Egypt and Israel. The MFO operates throughout the Sinai Peninsula and has included military units from around the world, including: Australia, Canada, Columbia, the Czech Republic, Fiji, France, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, the United States, Uruguay and the United Kingdom.

The MFO's history is traced back to Sept. 17, 1978, and resulted from the Camp David Peace Accords, brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The accords called for a full withdrawal by all Israeli forces operating in the Sinai. Subsequently, the two nations signed the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty on March 26, 1979 and the nations of Egypt, Israel and the United States established a peacekeeping force after the United Nations passed on creating the force. So, on August 3, 1981, the MFO was created.

It would not be long after the creation of the MFO that Mr. Maling and his comrades would find their way to the Sinai Peninsula. His unit left Pope Air Force Base on an El Al airliner on March 19th, 1982. They would land at a place called Ophir, which is about nine miles from the MFO base camp at Na' ama Bay, near Sharm El Sheikh (on the southern tip of the Sinai). The contingent would not return to Ft. Bragg until September of that year.

Mr. Maling explained, "We were to observe, verify and report violations of the Camp David Peace Agreement. Basically, we counted and reported every camel, truck, pedestrian or ship that we could see. We would even do roving patrols, both mounted and on foot."

Ed Maling (far left) and his comrades

Mr. Maling said the contingent from the 505th initially spent a few days in the base camp and then deployed in squad-sized observation positions and check points. During the rotation, he said his unit switched locations. Today, though, he says that units at the MFO spend their entire 6-month rotation at the same locale.

"Some of the [fixed] positions that had been used were [created] by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force the Egyptians had ejected in 1956. Most were unimproved but there was at least one microwave relay site that had previously been fortified by the Israelis," Mr. Maling said.

The shift for the paratroopers were four hours long, with eight hours off. They counted whatever they saw and reported their counts hourly.

"I'd say we did a good job," Mr. Maling said. "When we arrived the facilities were almost non-existent. The first observation point I saw had nothing there when we arrived -- just some orange paint marks. Later, they brought in small buildings and 1,000-gallon water tanks." He noted that the paratroopers' radios, model AN-PRC-77s, turned out to be inadequate and the troops were later issued Motorola jeep-mounted high-frequency radios.

READY FOR ACTION: Trooper Ed Maling in the Sinai

One one dark day, an Australian UH-1 helicopter even crashed while delivering food and mail to Mr. Maling and his comrades.

There were many challenges during the rotation, and no small degree of hazards. Mr. Maling said that facilities were "non-existent," communications was poor and there was inadequate supplies of anti-venom. This last item became tragically evident when a soldier from the 505th was stung by a scorpion and died on the emergency helicopter transport flight to Eliat.

"Nobody thought to bring sandbags," he said. "Trying to dig in the sand without sandbags is a complete waste of time."

Mr. Maling said duty in the Sinai was marked by boredom and monotony, punctuated by "...intense, way over the top partying in Cairo and Tel Aviv."  Along the way, though, he also says he received a good education in Middle Eastern cultural contrasts.

BACK IN THE STATES

When his unit did return from the Sinai, it is perhaps ironic that Mr. Maling was re-assigned to the Army's National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California, where desert-fighting skills are honed within units from around the armed forces.

The MFO Medal awarded to Sinai veterans

While at Ft. Irwin, his command sent Mr. Maling, who was a corporal at this time, to Primary Non-Commissioned Officer training at Ft. Ord, California. If he were to have re-enlisted, his unit made it clear he would be promoted to the rank of sergeant. "By then, it was obvious to me that the Army wasn't the place for me to try making a career," he noted.

After he left the Army, Mr. Maling said he went to college "so I'd never have to sleep in the dirt again." He studied engineering and worked, for a time, with the Bureau of Land Management, fighting fires. He went on to assist in saving Grant Village in Yellowstone National Park from a large fire in 1988.

Eventually, though, Mr. Maling's professional path concluded with him working for Chevron.

Though retired today, Mr. Maling still looks back with pride and satisfaction about his time in the Army as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne. Like so many before him, and after him, he took up his uniform and rifle and offered his service before turning his thoughts to family and career.
During his tenure in the Army, Mr. Maling earned the Army's Expert Infantry Badge, Basic Parachutist Badge, MFO Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, NCO Professional Development ribbon and the National Defense Service Medal.

MG James M. Gavin: The 'Jumping General' of the 82nd Airborne

MG James M. Gavin during combat operations in Holland, 1942

By JIM PURCELL

For students of military history and U.S. paratroopers from every era during the past six decades, he is one of the most compelling figures of World War II: Major General James M. "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin, third commander of the U.S. Army's  82nd Airborne Division during World War II (1941-1945).

Before he would retire from the Army, after the war, in 1958, he would garner yet another star on his shoulder, as a lieutenant general and commander of the U.S. Army Research and Development Command.

Yet, it is as a fighting general that MG Gavin is most remembered. MG Gavin was the youngest major general to command a division during World War II, being only 37 years old at the time of his promotion. Similarly, after the war, LTG Gavin became the youngest lieutenant general promoted to that rank, in March, 1955. M1

During combat operations in North Africa, Sicily and Europe, MG Gavin was well-known by his preference to carry an M1 Garand, a weapon normally used by enlisted Infantrymen, instead of either an M1 Carbine or M1911, .45 Caliber pistol, preferred by most officers.

MG Gavin's nickname was not just something made up one day. Rather, the "Jumping General" took part in all four combat jumps during World War II that the 82nd Airborne Division was involved with.  For the officers under his command, MG Gavin made it clear he intended they be "... the first one's out the door [during airborne drops] and the last ones on the chow line." So loved by many of his soldier's in the 82nd Airborne, decades later many veterans simply referred to the general as "The Boss."

Who knew that MG Gavin would travel so far in the world, given the humble circumstance of his birth.

MG Gavin was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 22, 1907 to Irish-American parents, Katherine Ryan and James Nally. On his birth certificate, he was given the name "James Nally Ryan." However, by the age of 2, the future airborne commander was given up for adoption and placed in the Covenant of Mercy Orphanage, in Brooklyn, where he remain until he was adopted, in 1909. The future war leader of the famed 82nd was adopted by a Pennsylvania coal miner and his wife, Martin and Mary Gavin, of Mount Carmel. Consequently, "James Nally Ryan" was re-christened "James Maurice Gavin."

Then-COL James M. Gavin

Despite the fact that his father was employed full-time, the Gavin family just barely got by, which promoted young James Gavin to quit school in the 8th Grade to become a full-time clerk at a shoe store for $12.50 per week. However, on the day of his 17th birthday, James Gavin took the night train to New York City. Once there, he sent word to his parents that he was well, so they would not be concerned about him. Then, he took the first steps in a military career that would span more than 30 years and three continents.

Young James Gavin went to an Army recruiter to join-up. However, being only 17, the recruiter brought him before a local lawyer, followed by the young Gavin being sworn in on April 1, 1924 as a private in the U.S. Army. Then-Private Gavin was not sent to Basic Training. Rather, in the Army of the 1920s, Basic Training was performed at the unit. In PVT Gavin's case, the unit was a 155mm battalion that served as coastal artillery at Ft. Sherman, Panama. He did well there and served as a crewman on a 155mm battery.

Once in Panama, PVT Gavin attended a local Army school to complete his education. At the Army school, the top graduates were given a chance -- only a chance -- to attend the United States Military Academy, in West Point, New York. It was stipulated that such graduates would be given the opportunity to be admitted to West Point only if they did well on the academy's entrance examination.

Well, in the Summer of 1925, Cadet James M. Gavin was entered into the freshman roll at West Point. Subsequently, as a graduating cadet in 1929, it was mentioned in the West Point yearbook, "Howitzer," that Cadet Gavin was an accomplished athlete, a boxer, and was "already a soldier" when he arrived to the Cadet Corps.

Upon graduating, in June, 1929, then 2nd Lieutenant Gavin married the former Irma Baulsir, on Sept. 5, 1929. This would be the first of two marriages for the future general. After divorcing his wife, Irma, then-MG Gavin married his second wife, the former Jean Emert Duncan, in July, 1948.

MG Gavin moved steadily through the ranks of the peacetime Army. Then, with war on the horizon, Lieutenant-Colonel James M. Gavin was promoted to the rank of full Colonel and assigned as the first commanding officer of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, at Ft. Benning, Georgia, in July, 1941. Gavin's brigade would join the 82nd Airborne Division, which at that time was comprised of the 325th and 326th Glider Infantry Regiments and the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Following combat in World War II in North Africa, Sicily and France, Col. Gavin was promoted to the rank of major general and became commander of the 82nd Airborne on Aug. 8, 1944, directly before Operation Market-Garden, which took place in Holland.

LTG Gavin

After the war ended, in 1945, LTG Gavin, an adversary of segregation, played a key role in the incorporation of an all-black battalion in the 82nd Airborne, the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion. Col. Bradley Biggs, first commander of the battalion, referred to LTG Gavin as "one of the most color-blind Army officers in the entire service."

In addition, LTG Gavin called for the use of mechanized troops being transported by air to become modern cavalry. By March, 1958, though, LTG Gavin retired from the Army and wrote the book "War and Peace in the Space Age," which was also published in 1958.

Later, the famed commander of the 82nd Airborne served as a technical adviser for the Hollywood films "The Longest Day" and "A Bridge Too Far."

LTG James M. Gavin died on Feb. 23, 1990 and was laid to rest in the Old Chapel at the United States Military Academy, and buried at the USMA Post Cemetery at West Point. He is survived by his widow, Jean, and five daughters, 10 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.