As World War II veterans gather in France this weekend to mark 60 years since Allied troops stormed Normandy, Port Angeles High School graduate Steven Michaelis will be suspended above it all.
For a few moments, at least.
Michaelis, a specialist in the Army’s 82nd Airborne, is one of about 60 people from his division who will drop into the town of Ste. Mere Eglise to re-enact the jump that paratroopers made for D-Day on June 5, 1944.
On Saturday, the 28-year-old will don his green uniform and jump through the door of a C-130 cargo plane about 800 feet above ground level.
He’ll then land just outside the town and attend a ceremony there.
“It’s kind of a weird feeling to re-enact something that was such a big event in history,” Michaelis said from his home at Fort Bragg, N.C., before departing Thursday for France.
