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elen "Briggsy" Ramsey (Red Cross 506 PIR WWII) fulfilled a wish, on August 1st, that had its roots with her World War II service as an American Red Cross volunteer. She jumped from an aircraft in flight. Briggsy is a 78 year old Washington D.C. resident and a life member of the 101st Airborne Division Association. She has been interested in making a parachute jump for some years and jumped at the chance when she found out about tandem jumping. Her grandnephew, Spec. Christopher Reichel, assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, helped arrange for the tandem jump with Cole Aviation at the Laurinburg-Maxton Airport in North Carolina. Her instructor, who jumped tandem with Briggsy, is SSG Paul Rafferty a member of the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team. He works for Bill Cole at Cole Aviation when not on duty. Briggsy says she tried to go through jump school while serving with the 3rd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in England. Because she was a civilian volunteer she was denied that wish, although many of the men wished to help her get parachute training the penalties became to great for them to attempt to violate regulations and orders. Almost 50 years later she achieved her dream legally. When executing a tandem jump an experienced parachutist attaches themself to the other free fall jumper and is responsible for guiding and deploying both his and the beginners parachute. Briggsy now has at least one jump story to tell when the Screaming Eagles meet, and she is no longer of the "leg" persuasion. ADDENDUM NOTE - Briggsy was a regular fixture at the associations reunions for years. She helped organize the first, two years after D-Day, and missed only three reunions in fifty years. She received a Bronze Star for her service to the wounded in France, and tried for years to become a paratrooper. What's more, Briggsy was a surprising benefactor in the Association's fund drive to build a division memorial by the gates of Arlington National Cemetery. She knitted a red, white, and blue afghan with Old Abe in the center. At an auction it originally sold for $250.00, and was donated to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter who raffled it, raising $1,000. This happened again and again until the afghan ended up in the Ft. Campbell Museum. Before it did, the afghan made eight or nine thousand dollars for the memorial. Briggsy was known and loved by everyone in the association. The above article and this note do not come close to telling her whole story. . | ||
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" On May 31, 1994 she was found mugged and badly beaten in her home in Washington, D.C. She died two days later from an aortic aneurysm caused by the beating. Her assailant, Leon V. Diggs, a D.C. vagrant was arrested and pleaded guilty on manslaughter and robbery charges in September of this year. He is facing 10 to 30 years in prison. Helen "Briggsy" Ramsey has been named our Association's Red Cross Lady in Memoriam, and won't soon to be forgotten." | ||
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