With firsthand accounts of WWII heroism from the US Army Pathfinders, New York Times bestselling author Jerome Priesler chronicles their escapades scouting behind enemy lines ahead of the Band of Brothers.   “When you land in Normandy, you will have only one friend: God.” —General “Jumpin’” Jim Gavin to the Pathfinders of the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions before D-Day, June 1944   When the invasion of Sicily almost ended in disaster, General Jim Gavin was determined to form a unit of special operations commandos who would jump ahead of the airborne forces—including the now legendary Easy Company—stealing across enemy terrain to scout and mark out drop zones with a unique array of homing equipment. The first into combat and the last out, their advance jumps were considered suicide missions by those who sent them into action.   Sporting Mohawk haircuts and war paint, they were the best of the best. Their heroic feats behind enemy lines were critical to nearly all of the Allies’ major victories from Normandy to Bastogne—where they saved the day for thousands of American troops in an operation almost forgotten by history—to the attack on the Ruhr Valley in Germany.   This is the story of the U.S. Army Pathfinders—their training, bonding, and battlefield exploits—told from the perspectives of the men who jumped, and those who risked everything to fly them into action.   INCLUDES PHOTOS "FIRST TO JUMP is an enjoyable, folksy and informative collection of stories told through the voices of the men who were there on the ground. Preisler succeeds in the telling of their stories as the result into his thorough research of primary sources, which includes interviews with veterans." -- Military Review Focusing on the World War II 101st Airborne Division, prolific author Preisler ( All Hands Down ; Code Name Caesar ) tells the story of the Pathfinders ... Preisler describes the Pathfinders's initiative, courage, and heroism in three major 1944 battles: Normandy, Market Garden, and Bastogne. This is the narrative history of the Pathfinders in action, emphasizing the firsthand experiences of not-so-ordinary soldiers." -- Library Journal Jerome Preisler is the author of thirty books including the New York Times bestselling series Tom Clancy’s Power Plays. His most recent nonfiction includes All Hands Down: The True Story of the Soviet Attack on the USS Scorpion , Code Name Caesar: The Secret Hunt for U-Boat 864 During World War II , and Daniel’s Music: One Family’s Journey from Tragedy to Empowerment Through Faith, Medicine, and the Healing Power of Music . FOREWORD They were considered mavericks, insubordinates, and undesirables, and they’d done plenty to earn the reputation. Their commanding officers were glad, not to say overjoyed, to see them ship out to train for their special missions—glad just to be rid of them, never mind that those missions were thought to be suicidal. They were the U.S. Army Pathfinders of the IX Troop Carrier Command. The first paratroopers to jump into combat. And they were heroes to a man. I spent two years chronicling their story to fill a significant gap in the history of the U.S. airborne military effort during World War Two—and in the much broader history of special operations commandos in the U.S. armed services. While there is some excellent literature about the 101st “Screaming Eagles” and 82nd Airborne Divisions, not much has been said of their Pathfinder units, perhaps because a lot of information about their covert actions, tactics, and equipment remained classified for decades after the war, and also possibly because they were relatively small in number—fewer than three hundred of them jumped into Normandy in June 1944, and only about two dozen into the frigid, snow-blanketed heart of Bastogne later that year, on the third and arguably most daring mission for which their unique expertise was required. If not for the Pathfinders’ heroic pinpoint drop into a German siege ring consisting of a quarter million infantry troops and more than a thousand tanks, the Christmas airlift of vital supplies and ammunition to the city’s encircled U.S. forces might have failed or never gotten underway. Without it Bastogne would have been lost, the cost in American lives would have soared, and the Allied cause would have been severely damaged—or worse. The Pathfinders were by definition special advance teams. Their job, put succinctly, was to jump behind enemy lines and mark the drop zones and landing zones for the main waves of airborne troops to follow. This alone made their existence a military innovation. But as conceived and refined by Acting Lieutenant Colonel Joel L. Crouch and Acting Sergeant Jake McNiece, the Pathfinders’ jump into Bastogne helped lay the blueprint for the sort of surgical strikes that would gain subsequent elite units widespread—and well-deserved—public recognition. My intent here isn’t to subtract from the accomplishments of any of those other g